Taken
by Adams7
Summary: When Alice Shepard is kidnapped on her and Garrus' wedding night, Garrus and the Normandy crew must race against time to save her from a mysterious new foe. Sequel to "One of Those Relationships," "The Talk," "The End of All Things," and "Guess Who I Brought Home!"
1. Happily Ever After

**A/N: Happy Halloween! Sorry this took so long, I really couldn't decide what turian marriage customs should be, and I didn't want to steal from somebody else's ideas, so I chickened out and just did the human ceremony. If you're new to this series, I strongly recommend you read all the prequels: "One of Those Relationships", "The Talk", "The End of All Things", and "Guess Who I Brought Home!". **

**It should be noted that I've only ever attended one wedding, and that was a Catholic wedding at some Polish church that our GPS completely butchered the name of, so I'm mostly going off of what I could research.  
**

1: Happily Ever After…

"Khalisah Bint Sinan al-Jilani, Westerlund News."

John Shepard sighed "I know who you are Khalisah…"

The reporter ignored him, continuing with what was clearly a rehearsed script. "Your twin sister Alice is marrying renowned turian Garrus Vakarian today, making them one of the first public human-turian unions. Tell me, how does it make you feel knowing that your sister is a xenophile?"

Shepard glared at Khalisah and the hover-camera floating beside her. "You know, I don't _have_ to talk to you; I'm doing this interview out of the kindness of my heart so I would appreciate it if you treated me and my family with respect."

Khalisah didn't back down "You still haven't answered the question."

Shepard shrugged "Honestly? I'm fine with it. Alice is my sister so naturally I'm a little protective but I trust Garrus with my life. He's my best friend and I couldn't think of anyone better for Alice." He turned and started to walk away, signaling that the interview was over.

Khalisah wasn't done yet however "But surely-"

"Lily wait, _not the chandelier_!"

"_Weeeee!_"

_CRASH!_

Shepard groaned and put his head in his hands at the distant crash. Turning back to the puzzled reporter, he said "Khalisah, we'll have to go through the whole 'you attempting to twist my words to make me look bad and failing miserably' thing later. Right now, I need to go ride herd on my daughter." With that, Shepard ran out of the room the interview had been taking place in.

In the reception hall, people were swarming around, trying to prep the room for the large crowd that would be arriving in a couple hours. In the center of the room, above the dance floor, hung a large, pure asari-crafted crystal chandelier made from the most precious minerals on Thessia.

Or rather _had_ hung. The chandelier was now a giant shattered pile on the floor. Off to the side stood a little three year old girl with golden blond hair just like her grandmother's doing her best to look ashamed as she was scolded by her babysitter. "You _don't_ just climb onto a chandelier and swing on it!" the man scolded "And you _especially_ don't cut the cables holding it up! What if you had been hurt?! Your father would have broken every bone in my body if anything had happened to you!"

"I'm glad to see you're handling babysitting duty so well Joker,"

"Commander!" Joker jumped and spun to face John. "I- er- I didn't-"

John raised his hand, cutting Joker off "How did she get on the chandelier?"

Joker looked at him helplessly "I don't know! I turned away for a second and next thing I know she's up there acting like she's at the rodeo!"

"And the cables?"

"I've got no freaking clue!" Joker cried "What on earth made you think that having the cripple in charge of the high-energy, trouble making toddler anyways?! Couldn't somebody else have watched her?"

"Well let's see…" John started counting off on his fingers "Jacob's too busy watching his kids, Brynn's pregnant-"

"_Again_?" Joker said in disbelief. "_Man_, those two need a hobby."

John nodded "Agreed. Kelly's turned into a slave driver and is putting Cortez, Traynor, Adams, Gabby, and Ken to work on decorations (Lord help us). Allers is too busy being a reporter. Rahn has her hands full watching 'curious Kal'. Gardner's working in the kitchens. Zaeed is the reason she knows more curse words at _three_ than I do _now_. Bakara and Chakwas are looking after Mordin. Kasumi taught Lily how to bypass locks the last time she watched her, and besides, she, Ash, Liara, Tali, Miranda, EDI, Jack, my mom, and Samara are all "helping" Alice get ready. My dad's busy trading stories with Garrus' family, and Javik would scare her. You were the only one left."

"What about Wrex, Vega, or Grunt?"

John gave Joker a flat stare "Do you _really_ think that those three could be trusted to watch a little girl with a talent for trouble? Besides, they're all with Gar-" John froze when he realized that a certain mischievous three year old was missing. "Joker?" he asked nervously "Where's Lily?"

Joker spun around to where Lily had just been standing "I swear she was right here!"

Suddenly, they heard Khalisah release a shrill shriek accompanied by Lily's joyous giggling "Charge Urzy!"

Joker snickered while John face-palmed with a groan "_Lily_…"

Meanwhile, the mother of aforementioned little demon was doing her best not to collapse into fits of laughter as Tali and Liara fussed over the bride. "Really Liara, it's alright." Alice was saying.

"No, no, _no_!" Liara cried, "This doesn't go with the dress _at all_!"

"It's the underwear Liara…"

"Shush Miranda; it _all_ has to match _perfectly_!"

"The only person who's going to be seeing the underwear is Garrus, Liara." Alice pleaded "And he _likes_ the blue."

"Stop worrying about the underwear Liara." Tali scolded.

Alice breathed a sigh of relief "Thank you Tali…"

"Now her _hair_ on the other hand…"

Alice swore and noticed in the mirror that Ashley was snickering "Enjoying yourself _Mrs. Shepard_?"

Ashley grinned "Just think of it as me getting revenge for the way you teased me at my wedding."

"Tali stop; let me." Miranda stepped forward. "I know a great deal about hair care."

Jack snorted "You _would_."

Ignoring the ex-convict, Miranda got to work. Nearby, EDI and Samara were examining Alice's dress while Kasumi sifted through Alice's jewelry box. "_Really_ Alice?" Kasumi said, pulling out a Mardi Gras necklace.

Alice winced "We visited my grandparents in New Orleans for Mardi Gras last year…"

Kasumi shook her head and tossed the gaudy beads aside, continuing to search through the box. "Ugh, _rhinestones_."

"I don't normally wear jewelry okay!" Alice defended.

"Clearly" Kasumi smirked "I guess I'll just have to grab some jewelry from my private stash. Back in a bit!" with that, Kasumi vanished into thin air.

Alice groaned "How much you want to bet that her 'private stash' is all stolen?"

"I don't bet on sure things." Miranda said flatly as she worked Alice's hair. "Dear God Alice, do you even _take care_ of your hair?"

"I wash it!" Alice protested.

"_And_ condition?" Miranda persisted.

"Yes."

"What brand do you use?"

"Dove." Alice stated.

"Dove? _Dove_?" Miranda looked at Alice incredulously. "What is _wrong_ with you?"

Alice's face reddened "It's a perfectly good brand!"

"Yeah, if you're trying to be _boring_!" Miranda shot back.

"Be nice Miranda," Ashley teased, watching the spectacle with amusement.

"Shush," Miranda grabbed Alice's arm and started dragging her away "I need an emergency salon treatment, STAT!"

"_Miranda_…" Alice groaned as the ex-Cerberus officer led her to the bathroom.

Ashley laughed and turned to her mother-in-law Hannah Shepard. "Let me guess, she gets it from your side of the family?"

Hannah shook her head, "Nope," she grinned "We Shepards are a 'refined' bunch, as my parents would say. No doubt they had a heart attack when they learned Alice was marrying a turian. I remember how furious they were when they found out about me and Carn."

"I take it you're not on good terms?" Tali asked.

"That's putting it mildly." Hannah chuckled.

Suddenly a shrill shriek came from the bathroom "_Hold still Alice!_"

"_Keep those nightmare scissors away from me!_"

"_They're for texturizing your hair! Now. Hold. Still!_"

"_NO!_"

Hannah chuckled "I better go in and calm Alice down." She headed into the bathroom and the sounds of struggle ceased not long after.

Several minutes later, Alice, Miranda, and Hannah emerged from the bathroom. Tali squealed "You look _beautiful_!"

Alice's black hair shone brilliantly in the light, it was stylized with waves and curls that it normally lacked, framing her face perfectly. She was even wearing makeup, subtle touches that accented her natural beauty, not hide it beneath a mask.

Alice scowled "I've been violated."

"No you haven't" Miranda said "I've merely made you presentable for your wedding. Trust me, Garrus will be _drooling_ all over you. Now let's get you in that dress!"

Alice eyed the gown with distaste "Can't I just wear one of my other dresses, you know, one less _clingy_?"

"Absolutely not!" Liara snapped "Do you have any idea how much this cost to make? Even with my significant funds, custom tailored, pure hand woven silk is _expensive_!"

"I never asked you to spend so much money on it Liara!" Alice retorted.

Samara turned to Alice "It was a thoughtful gift Alice, the least you could do is wear it for one day."

Alice sighed in resignation "Fine…"

"Don't worry Alice," Tali reassured her "You'll love it!" she lifted the dress off of the hanger it was carefully placed on "Now, does anyone know how to get her in this?"

…

"Bullshit," Solana said.

"It's true!" Alice and John's father Carnegie "Carn" Shepard insisted. "John was incredibly rebellious as a teenager. It didn't help that we were stationed on the Citadel at the time."

Solana shook her head "That may be true, but I seriously doubt that Commander Shepard was arrested for having sex with a turain girl _in public_."

Vakarian spoke up "Actually Sol, I do remember hearing about that in C-Sec. If I'm correct the boy had gotten several deep scratches because the girl hadn't blunted her talons in several weeks."

Carn nodded "Yep, she actually severed an artery. We had to take him to the emergency room, Hannah, Alice, and I were terrified, but John just kept grinning like the cat that ate the canary."

"The what?" Solana asked with a puzzled look

"It's a human expression."

"I'm assuming that you punished him?" Vakarian said.

Carn shook his head "Didn't need to, Alice was so angry at John that she made his life a living hell for weeks."

"How so?"

Carn grinned "Let's just say that there's a reason my son hates hanar clowns."

"And they're good ones!" Carn turned and saw John walking over, Lily in his arms.

Carn rolled his eyes and took his granddaughter from John's arms, smiling brightly "So how has my little angel been doing?" he cooed, causing Lily to giggle.

"I believe our 'angel' has made an enemy of al-Jilani." John said, rubbing his eyes "She sicked Urz on her."

Carn beamed at Lily. "Thatta' girl!"

"Sure, encourage her why don't you?" John mumbled "Listen, can you watch her? I need to go check with Admiral Hackett and see if he's ready."

"I am," Hackett said, appearing behind John. "I suggest we get things started; that perky woman, Kelly Chambers, has started harassing the Primarch with her flirting."

John sighed "Yeah that sounds like Kelly. I'll go tell everyone we're starting."

…

Garrus fidgeted in the black turian "tuxedo". _Spirits this is uncomfortable_.

Next to him, Wrex chuckled, "Nervous Vakarian?"

Garrus glared at Wrex "Remind me again why you're standing next to me instead of John? I believe I choose _him_ to be my best man."

Wrex grunted "I'm a placeholder on the off chance that he's too busy with the press to make it."

At that moment John jogged up behind them "Move over Wrex," he said, squeezing in between the krogan and the turian. "Sorry I'm late."

"I'm just glad you made it." Garrus said "I thought al-Jilani would keep you tied down for hours."

John grinned "You can thank my new press liaison and her trusty varren steed for that."

Garrus cocked a brow-plate at John "This 'press liaison' wouldn't also happen to be the flower girl would she?"

"Perhaps"

The ceremony was taking place on a broad terrace overlooking the Presidium. White benches had been lined along either side of a long red carpet that led up to the arch covered white flowers under which Garrus, John, Wrex, and Admiral Hackett stood. People were already starting to fill the benches toward the rear, the front reserved for friends, family, and the crew of the Normandy. They had initially tried to keep the ceremony a private affair at the very least. Unfortunately, the media had caught wind of the event and there were several cameras floating around. In addition to friends and family, the ceremony was also going to be attended by several persons of note from both the human and turian governments, and the reception was going to be attended by even more people (although this time the krogans and the salarians would be seated as far away from each other as possible, didn't want a repeat of John and Ashley's wedding reception after all).

"It's starting," John said when the crew of the Normandy had taken their seats.

Garrus straightened up as the music started to play. Alice had wanted to do both the turian and human ceremonies, but Garrus had convinced her that turian marriages were long, boring affairs and that, if the turian government would accept the human ceremony, they should just bypass the turian part altogether. Garrus waited anxiously for the procession to march down the aisle, starting with the flower girl who would precede the bride.

…and waited…

…and waited…

Finally, after the longest 30 seconds of Garrus' life, he saw Ashley in a simple scarlet gown push a little girl in a frilly pink dress into the aisle. Garrus heard John chuckle next to him and couldn't hold back his own grin when he saw the pout on Lily Shepard's face as she grudgedly threw flower petals from the basket she was carrying down onto the ground as she marched down the aisle. Then, Garrus' attention returned to the door at the end of the aisle and his breath caught in his throat.

Alice walked down the aisle, arm in arm with her father. She was dressed in a flowing white evening gown that clung to her curves perfectly, the fabric glittering in the light. She wore a white quarian shawl loosely over her head. In her hands was a bouquet of flowers from both Earth and Palaven. Her gleaming, lightly tanned skin looked flawless; her face was beautiful enough to make even the genetically perfect Miranda jealous. Her vibrant blue eyes, identical to her brother's, yet somehow so much more beautiful, sparkled behind her dark lashes and her cherry red lips were pulled into a soft smile directed solely at Garrus. He stood there, gapping and speechless as Alice approached him. Finally, with a nudge from John, Garrus came back to himself and closed his mouth, his mandibles fluttering into a broad smile.

Alice reached the arch and moved from her father's side to stand beside Garrus, flashing him a grin as she lowered her shawl to her shoulders, revealing her perfect midnight black hair. "So, how do I look?" she asked him quietly as she linked her hand with his.

"Well… your hair looks good… and your waist is… very supportive…" Garrus chuckled as Alice playfully swatted him on the arm with the bouquet. He was so absorbed in Alice that he didn't even register Ashley, as the Maid of Honor, walk up and take her spot beside Alice, relieving her of the bouquet. Hackett started "We are gathered here today to celebrate in the union of Alice Hannah Shepard, and Garrus Aeitus Vakarian Jr." (John, oh-so-subtly stomped on Wrex's foot when he snickered at learning Garrus was a junior) "and in the symbolic union of turians and humans…"

You could practically hear everyone in the room suppress a groan when Hackett went on to describe how Garrus and Alice's marriage could only strengthen the bond between the Turian Hierarchy and the Systems Alliance, putting on a show for the media. Finally after he had completed his speech, Hackett turned to Garrus "Do you, Garrus Vakarian, take this woman to be your wife, to protect and cherish, in sickness and in health, as long as you both shall live?"

"I do." Garrus had never meant two words more in his whole life.

"Do you, Alice Shepard, take this man- er, turian to be your husband, to protect and cherish, in sickness and in health, as long as you both shall live?"

"I do." Alice's eyes never left Garrus' as she spoke.

Hackett smiled, or came close to it as anyone had ever seen from him. "Then by the power vested in me by the Systems Alliance, the Turian Hierarchy, and the Council, I now pronounce you husband and wife. You may-" Hackett never got to say "kiss the bride" because at that moment, Alice grabbed Garrus and pulled him into a passionate kiss. "Well, never mind then…" Hackett shook his head "I should have expected that after Shepard's wedding."

John smirked and kicked Garrus in the turian equivalent of the shins "'Ey! Save it for the bedroom!"

…

The reception was thankfully less hectic than John and Ashley's wedding reception. The only real incident was when Ken tackled Gabby when it looked like she was going to catch the bouquet, allowing for it to be caught by Miranda, who looked at the bouquet in disgust and tossed it over her shoulder… right into Councilor Tevos' food. As the afternoon became evening, the reception started to wind down. Tali was the first to leave, her two year-old son Kal having slept through the entire event. Next were Jacob, Brynn, and their two kids, followed by Miranda who said she had a lot of paperwork that needed doing, taking Oriana with her (it was not lost on Garrus that Miranda dragged Oriana off when she started talking to a handsome boy who was one of John and Alice's cousins).

"Hey Garrus," John said, getting his new brother-in-law's attention. "Me and Ash are skipping out," he glanced back as Ashley came up behind him with Lily in her arms "_Somebody_ needs to go to bed."

"But I don' wanna go to bed!" Lily whined, the way she was tiredly rubbing her eyes saying otherwise.

Ashley chuckled "I'm just glad she finally crashed from the sugar high, I don't think I could handle her high level of energy anymore."

John smiled and turned back to Garrus "Call us in the morning, Liara has your honeymoon all paid for and Joker wants to take you there on the Normandy."

Garrus nodded, flashing John a grin "Thanks, I have to say, it feels good to be your brother."

John laughed and clapped Garrus on the shoulder "You were already my brother Garrus, this just makes it official." He grinned "I guess there really is no Shepard without Vakarian now is there?"

Garrus grinned back at John "No there isn't."

Several minutes after John, Ashley, and Lily had left, Wrex beckoned Garrus and Alice to come over and talk to him off to the side of the main party. "Congratulations," Wrex said gruffly, turning to Garrus "You're a married man now, say goodbye to all freedom."

Garrus snorted and put an arm around Alice "I think the trade was worth it."

Wrex nodded and looked at Alice "Have you two started thinking about children yet?"

Alice's eyebrows rose "We've talked about it from time to time. We know that adoption is the best option. There are a lot of orphans left over from the Reaper War."

Wrex nodded "Yeah, I suppose so."

Garrus' eyes narrowed "Why do you ask Wrex?"

The leader of the krogan looked over to where Bakara was entertaining young Mordin "Me and Bakara have been talking, and we think that it would be best if Mordin was raised away from other krogan. He's too… small…" he looked back at Garrus and Alice "And for political reasons it would be best if I didn't have a runt as my heir."

"You're saying that you don't _want_ Mordin?" Alice said sharply.

Wrex sighed "I knew you would think that. I'm saying that it would be better for him, and everyone else, if he didn't grow up on Tuchanka." Garrus saw sadness behind Wrex's eyes as he said "The docs say that without the right treatment, he'll only get worse, and he won't be able to get that treatment on Tuchanka. I already asked Shepard, and he said that I should give the offer to you first."

Garrus immediately understood "We'll have to think about it." He said.

Wrex nodded "Of course, it's a big decision; let me know what you decide."

The remainder of the reception was uneventful, and when Alice and Garrus finally entered the Honeymoon Suite, it was well past midnight. Finally alone, it didn't take a genius to figure out what happened next.

Several minutes later, they were resting in one another's arms among the tangled mess of sheets. Garrus' mandibles fluttered in contentment as her brushed a stray lock of hair out of Alice's dozing face. Sighing happily, Alice cuddled closer to Garrus' chest, their naked bodies pressed flush against each other beneath the blankets. Garrus took her hand that wearing the ring in his and raised it to his lip-plates, kissing it. _My wife._

Alice smiled, still not opening her eyes "You're not going to do that every night are you?"

"That depends," Garrus whispered "Do you like it?"

Alice giggled "A little."

Garrus grinned and leaned forward to kiss Alice tenderly on the lips "I love you."

Alice opened her eyes and smiled at Garrus "I love you too." They lay together in comfortable silence for several more minutes before Alice spoke again "So… have you thought any more about Wrex's offer?"

Garrus blinked "You mean about adopting Mordin?" Alice nodded "Dear, we just got _married_, I'd rather wait on having kids until after the Honeymoon."

Alice chuckled "Fair enough, but after?" she met Garrus' eyes "You know he won't survive on Tuchanka among clan Urdnot."

Garrus sighed; he knew that Mordin was a genetic rarity among krogan, most likely due to his mother's own genetic tampering. Smaller than the average krogan at his age and with a weakened immune system, he had only lived to his third year because his parents had kept him on the Citadel. "Tell you what," Garrus said finally "we find a nice place to live on the Citadel with enough room for a young krogan to grow and we'll take Wrex up on his offer."

Alice smiled "Sounds like a plan."

They resumed cuddling, allowing themselves to slowly drift off to sleep in one another's arms. After an indiscernible amount of time had passed, Garrus was roused from his slumber when he heard voices in the hall outside their suite. He dismissed the noise. _Probably just somebody looking for their room._

Then the door blew in.

In a flash, Garrus was awake and sprung from the bed, ready for combat. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Alice do the same. He saw several dark figures rush into the room and he heard someone shout "Get the human!"

His protective instincts ignited deep inside him. Releasing a snarl, he charged at the figures. He closed in on the nearest form and was about to tear into it with his talons, never mind that he had previously blunted the tips so that he wouldn't hurt Alice, when he felt a sharp prick in his neck. Garrus roared and swung wildly, throwing the assailant who had flanked him across the suite. He reached up and removed the syringe from his neck, just as he started to feel dizzy. _Drugged_. He toppled over and distantly heard Alice calling his name. He saw the flare of her biotics and just as he fell into darkness his last thought was, _Somebody's gonna pay._

…

"…_garrus…"_

Go away.

"…Garrus…"

_Quiet, I'm trying to sleep._

"Garrus!"

_It's the day after my wedding, can't I just sleep in with my wi-_

ALICE!

Garrus' eyes flew open and he looked at his surroundings. He was lying on his side in what remained of the suite. John was leaning over him, "About damn time!" John said. "I've been trying to wake you for half an hour!"

Garrus looked around, frantically searching "Where's Alice?"

John's expression darkened "She's gone Garrus, they took her."

**A/N: As always, please let me know what I did well and what I can improve on!**


	2. Or Not

**A/N: You can thank my brother constantly kicking me off the PlayStation for this chapter getting out so soon, otherwise I'd probably be playing AC3 instead of writing this.**

2: ...Or Not

Garrus heard the echo of voices around him, yet he could not discern their meaning. All he was aware of was the gaping hole in his chest.

Gone.

Alice was gone.

He felt a hand on his shoulder and looked up to see Liara sitting down next to him on the bench, a comforting smile on her lips. "Javik is up in the suite right now getting information with his Touch. We'll find her Garrus, don't worry."

Garrus didn't respond, ignoring Liara's hollow words. Nearby, John was talking with that al-Jilani reporter. "I don't care how much you beg, Garrus is not available for questioning. If you have any questions, direct them to me."

Garrus heard the irritation in al-Jilani's tone. "Fine. Do you have any leads regarding why someone would kidnap your sister on her wedding night?"

"We're looking into that."

"What about how they managed to infiltrate the hotel?"

"We're looking into that."

"Do you have any suspects?"

"We're looking into that."

"Do you have _any_ leads _at all_?" al-Jilani asked with frustration.

"No, because I've been too busy telling nosey reporters to mind their own damn business!" John snapped before marching over to Garrus.

Raising his head again, Garrus saw John kneeling in front of him "Garrus," he said calmly "Do you remember anything else about what happened?"

Garrus shook his head "No, I told you and the investigators everything." He growled and punched the bench hard enough to dent the metal. "Damn it!"

"Garrus, calm down!" Liara pleaded.

"'Calm down'? '_Calm down_'?! Alice is _gone_! She could be _dead_ for all we know!" Garrus raged, getting to his feet. "I _failed _her! I swore to protect her and barely 12 hours later, I _failed_!"

"So you're just going to sit around and mope?" John challenged "That's not like you Garrus."

Garrus' eyes narrowed as he growled at John "No, I'll tell you what I'm going to do. I'm going to find these sons-of-bitches and I'm going to kill them. _Very, very, slowly_." He stepped forward, getting in John's face "And you better not get in my way."

John did not back down. In fact, Garrus saw something in his eyes, something dark, something that spoke of a wrath that could make even the Reapers cower in terror. "You won't need to worry about me stopping you." John said, his voice cold and dark "_Nobody_ hurts my sister. _Nobody_."

Garrus nodded, his mandibles spread into an almost feral grin. Neither of them noticed the worried look Liara was giving them.

Several minutes later, Javik emerged from the hotel, his expression -as always- grim. "What did you learn?" John asked immediately.

Javik shook his head "It was just as the turian said, they broke into the room, sedated both of them after a brief struggle, and took your sister."

"That's _it_?" Garrus snarled "You couldn't have found out how they got into the hotel or even who 'they' were?"

Javik's eyes narrowed as he glared at Garrus "In fact I _did_ learn who they were: two humans, an asari, a turian, and a salarian."

Garrus snorted "Oh _yeah_, that narrows it down _a lot_."

"The humans were twin brothers, roughly 22-27 years old, dominantly Caucasian." Javik continued dryly "The salarian was 37 years old, possessed cybernetic eyes and still moved remarkably fast for his age, he was the one who drugged you Vakarian. The asari was a pure-blood in her maiden stage, and the turian was approximately 6 feet, 9 inches tall. He appeared to be the leader of the group."

"Oh…" Garrus said sheepishly "That's a bit more helpful…"

"But not much." John said "There have got to be billions of people who match those descriptions, we need more."

"Perhaps you should start with the salarian," Javik suggested "The cybernetic eyes should narrow down the search."

"You'd be surprised how many salarians get their eyes replaced with cybernetics when they get older." Liara said, joining the conversation as she stood up. "Still, I'll start looking for possible suspects."

"Coordinate with Bailey." John said "Maybe the C-sec techs found some DNA samples that could help." Liara nodded and walked off "Do you know how they infiltrated the hotel?" John said, turning back to Javik "I thought we had top notch security guarding the place."

"They entered and left through a side entrance where they'd killed the guards, then escaped in a hover-car that's all I know. Perhaps you should consult with Bailey, I encountered him at the side entrance." Javik suggested.

John nodded "Sounds like a plan, come on Garrus."

Garrus and John headed into the hotel, going straight to the side entrance the kidnappers had used. Sure enough, Executor Bailey was there, talking with a human male in a C-Sec uniform as the crime techs analyzed the scene. As soon as Bailey saw them, he nodded and gestured for them to cross the crime holo-tape and join him.

"Bailey" John said.

"Shepard" the Executor nodded back. "I was wondering when you'd show up." he gestured to his companion. "This is Detective Wu; he'll be heading the investigation."

John nodded to Wu, "Detective,"

Wu returned the nod "Commander Shepard, it's an honor to meet you."

"What have you learned?" Garrus asked, completely ignoring Wu and getting straight to the point.

Bailey shook his head "Not much I'm afraid, we did find this though." He held out a small flat disk that fit easily into the palm of his hand.

John took the disk from Bailey. "What is it?" he asked, examining it.

The Executor shrugged "We don't know, my techs can't identify."

"Maybe we can get EDI or the geth to look at it." Garrus said, taking the disc from John.

As soon as his fingers touched it, the disc started glowing and a cool simulated voice echoed from it. **"DNA match confirmed, playing message."**

Garrus' brow-plates rose as possibly one of the weirdest things he'd ever seen occurred (and he'd seen a lot of weird things). The surface of the disc seemed to ripple and the side facing up seemed to morph, as a vaguely humanoid form rose from the surface like it was emerging from water. **"Garrus Vakarian,"**the entity said in a different voice, one that seemed to slide through the ears like oil, yet left grating marks like it was barbed. **"If you are listening to this than we have succeeded in capturing your wife without needing to kill you, something rather fortuitous." **The voice paused, as though waiting for instruction before continuing. **"If you ever want to see her again, you will come to the construction site of the Reaper War Memorial on the Presidium and wait for further instruction. Come alone."** With that the form seemed to lose its cohesion and fell back into the surface of the disk like it had never been there at all.

After a moment of stunned silence Bailey spoke up "Well, at least we now have a lead."

"A lead that is probably a trap," John added.

"Obviously," Wu agreed, "But a lead is a lead, and we _need_ leads."

"I'm not so sure sending Garrus into a trap without back-up is such a good idea." Bailey said, "We need to be smart about how we proceed."

Wu nodded in agreement "Of course, however time is of the essence, and I assume Mr. Vakarian can take care of himself."

"But Bailey's right, we can't just send Garrus in alone." John countered.

"You might want to tell him that." Bailey said, "'Cause it looks to me like Garrus is already on his way there."

John spun around in time to see Garrus' back as he left the crime scene. "Garrus!" John called as he rushed after his brother-in-law. "Garrus wait!"

Garrus ignored John and continued walking at a brisk pace. Only when John finally caught up to him and grabbed his arm did Garrus whirl around to face him "What?" he snarled. "You heard the message; I have to go to the Reaper War Memorial _alone_!"

"I know," John said "But surely you can see that this is a trap! At least take a weapon!"

Garrus shook his head "I'm not risking it, what if they see that I'm armed and hurt Alice? No, if things go bad, I'm going to handle things the old fashioned way and rip them to shreds with my talons."

John frowned, "Fine, but stay in contact. We'll be there in a flash if you need help."

Garrus nodded and as he marched away, John had a bad feeling in the pit of his stomach.

…

The Reaper War Memorial construction site was surprisingly deserted. There were no crews working on the massive monument, so Garrus was all alone as he strode through the plaza toward the tower of scaffolding. Garrus had seen the plans for the monument; a large replica of the Crucible was to be held aloft by Mass Effect fields while below it, was to be a ring of statues looking up at it, one statue for each species that had fought in the war. Personally, Garrus hated the design; the Council should have excluded the Crucible altogether considering how much good it did in actually ending the war.

Garrus reached the construction and waited, ready to confront the people who had taken Alice. Instead, he was met with nothing, not another soul was in sight. After almost an hour of waiting around, Garrus was about ready to give up the message for a red herring when he heard a faint beeping. Looking around, he saw a small box with a transmitter attached to it sitting on the lowest level of the scaffolding. Reaching up, Garrus plucked the box from its perch, causing the transmitter to stop beeping. Opening the box, Garrus tensed at what he saw.

Inside, there was a simple note, a curious insignia, and a lock of midnight black hair. Garrus tenderly removed the lock of hair, raising it to his nose. He felt a sharp pain in his chest as he recognized the scent: _Alice_.

Garrus looked back in the box and took out the insignia. It was a diamond with a circle inside it. It would have been simple and unremarkable, had the circle not been the exact size of the disk from the crime scene. _I wonder…_ Curious, Garrus took out the disk, having taken it with him, and placed it in the hole. It fit perfectly, and immediately fixed itself in place. The surface of the disk rippled once more and when it finally became solid once more, an inverted triangle with the emblem of the Terminus Systems was engraved on it. Turning his attention back to the note still in the box, Garrus felt his blood boil as he read those two words scribbled on the scrap of paper in harsh, jagged handwriting.

_Ask Carn._

**A/N: As always, please let me know what I did well and what I can improve on.**


	3. A Place to Start

**A/N: I wanted to apologize for the poor quality of the last chapter, unlike most of my stories, "Taken" doesn't have the benefit of me writing a rough draft beforehand because I skipped over it and went straight to writing the rough draft of its sequel (on the plus side, this means that I have a much better idea about how to foreshadow things related to the sequel in this story). **

3: A Place to Start

Garrus' expression as he marched towards John and Detective Wu was, to say the least, _pissed_. "What is this?!" Garrus demanded, shoving an insignia in John's face "What is this?!"

John frowned and took the insignia from Garrus "Well, I'd say that it's the Terminus emblem inside an inverted triangle inside a circle inside a diamond."

"Don't get smart with me!" Garrus snapped, shoving a scrap of paper at John. "This says 'Ask Carn' so I want to know what the hell _your father_ has to do with this!"

John's eyes narrowed "Are you accusing my father of something?"

"Do we know _someone else_ named Carn?!" Garrus snarled. "I swear Shepard; if this is all someone getting revenge on your father through Alice I'll-"

"You'll _what_?" Shepard said darkly, his expression hard.

He and Garrus stared down one another, neither willing to back down when Wu coughed "Um, not to interrupt or anything, but where did you find this?"

"In a box at the Memorial." Garrus said, breaking the stare and looking at the Detective. "It had a transmitter that was set to go off when I was near."

"And you're sure it's from the kidnappers?" John asked.

Garrus held up a lock of familiar midnight black hair that sent a sharp pang through John's chest. "I'm sure."

Wu however, was not convinced "But why would they leave a clue behind unless it was to deter us or lead us into a trap? It doesn't make sense."

"Still, it can't hurt to follow up on this." John said "Come on Garrus, my dad's helping Ash and my mom look after Lily."

They were starting to leave when John noticed that Detective Wu was following them. "Um, Detective? Not that you haven't been helpful or anything, but this is kind of a private matter."

Wu gave John a hard glare "This is _my_ investigation. It is my duty to question all suspects and gather as much information as possible in order to locate your sister, regardless of how 'personal' the matter is."

John's eyes narrowed "I'm a Council Spectre, and therefore this matter is classified. Take it up with Bailey if you have a problem with it." Without another word, John turned on his heel and marched away with Garrus, leaving the fuming detective behind.

Several minutes later John and Garrus entered the spacious apartment the Shepard's lived in. John shook his head as he picked up a toy cowboy pistol off the floor of the entry hall "I keep telling that girl to pick up her toys. Why won't she listen?"

"Give Lily a lecture later," Garrus said "Right now, we need to find Carn."

John nodded and moved into the kitchen to see Ashley sitting down with her head on the table, a full cup of coffee next to her. She looked up as John and Garrus came in "Hey," she said somberly "How's the search coming?"

John leaned down and kissed her forehead "We've got a lead. You okay?"

Ashley nodded "I couldn't go back to sleep after you left, I kept worrying about Alice." She looked at Garrus "I'm sorry; I thought we had taken care of all the threats. I should have pushed for more security like Miranda."

John shook his head, "It's not your fault; you couldn't have known what would happen."

It was not lost on John that Garrus ignored Ashley's apology and just got straight to the point "We need to talk to Carn. Do you know where he is?"

Ash nodded "He's with Hannah keeping Lily distracted in her room,"

"Thanks," Garrus immediately started towards the bedrooms without even a backwards glance.

John kissed Ashley on the forehead again "Thanks Ash, go get some sleep, you look like hell."

Ashley lightly punched John in the shoulder "You certainly know how to make a girl feel pretty." She said dryly.

"It's a gift." John said with a smirk before following Garrus to Lily's bedroom.

John couldn't hold back the grin that broke onto his face when he heard Lily's laughter as he opened the door. Lily's room was decorated with a theme for her latest fascination: the Old West. With cowboy wallpaper and pictures of horses and the Mojave Desert on the walls, the room was something you would have expected from a boy, not a girl. Still, it was better than her last fascination: the Mafia. (For the millionth time, John swore he would make Zaeed suffer for showing Lily _The Godfather._)Inside Lily's room, Carn and Hannah were playing "Sheriffs and Outlaws" with Lily and her toys. Once again, Lily was the "Outlaw" while Carn was the "Sheriff". Lily was running around the room waving a toy cowboy like it was flying and cheerfully crying "You'll never catch me!" while Carn chased her (though obviously he wasn't trying very hard).

"Got you!" Carn said triumphantly as he caught Lily in a hug and lifted her off the ground as she squealed. Carn's voice dropped to a horrible western accent as he said "Y'all goin' to jail pardner!"

"Never!" Lily cried defiantly as she seemed to break free of Carn's grip (though in truth he'd let her escape) and resumed running around the room.

"Blast it! She escaped again!" Carn said in mock frustration as he resumed the chase.

Suddenly, Lily turned around and pointed her action figure's small gun at Carn and cried "BANG!"

"Argh!" Carn cried out in "pain", clutching his chest. "You got me!" With that he fell back to the floor, his tongue lolled out to the side and his eyes squeezed shut in "death".

Hannah, who had been watching the game from Lily's bed, gave an exaggerated gasp "You killed Grandpa!"

Lily shook her head "Nuh, uh!" without warning she happily jumped onto Carn's chest, causing her grandfather to drop the act and cry out.

"Dang it Lil'! I thought I told you that you were too big for jumping on me!" He said real pain in his voice but his tone still light.

Lily gave him her best puppy face "So?"

John spoke up, knocking on the door frame to get their attention. "Dad? We need to talk to you for a moment."

Carn nodded and lifted Lily off of him, saying "Go play with Grandma for a bit, Grandpa needs to talk with your Daddy and Uncle Garrus." Lily nodded and rushed over to Hannah as Carn got to his feet and joined John and Garrus in the hall, closing the door behind him "What's wrong? Did you learn something about the people who took Alice?"

Garrus growled "That depends," he thrust the insignia in Carn's face "Does _this_ mean anything to you?"

Carn frowned and took the insignia from Garrus, moving further down the hallway with John and Garrus to not disturb Lily and Hannah. "I haven't seen one of these in years. Where'd you get this?"

"It was left for me by the kidnappers." Garrus said "Along with a note that said 'Ask Carn' and this." Garrus held up the lock of Alice's hair.

Carn's eyes widened as he took the lock of hair from Garrus. "God…"

"Dad, where have you seen that symbol before?" John asked.

"It's the emblem of a group of slavers who terrorized some of our outer colonies a couple decades ago. They were the ones responsible for the raid on Mindoir. I was part of the task force assembled to take them down." Carn shook his head "We wiped out almost all of them and destroyed their organization. Anyone left dispersed into other merc groups. I thought they were finished."

John frowned "But they were _batarian_ slavers weren't they? Javik said that the people who took Alice were two humans, an asari, a salarian, and a turian."

"Maybe they've branched out." Carn suggested.

Garrus shook his head "Something doesn't add up."

"Regardless, we'll need to find them if we're going to get Alice back." John pointed out.

"Liara can use her contacts to find them." Garrus said "But we need more."

Carn cleared his throat "Yes… em… I do actually know where we can find a former member."

"Where?" Garrus demanded. "Who is he?"

"_She_," Carn corrected "Her name is Vel Dorrak; she was our informant on the inside. Last I heard she'd married an asari and was living on Illium, although that was before the Reaper War."

"So you're saying she _might_ be on Illium," John ventured "_or_ she might be dead."

Carn shook his head "Vel's tough, she would have survived, I just don't know if she's still there."

"Well we better get to Illium as quickly as possible and look for her." Garrus said, turning to leave.

John nodded and started to follow him "I'll contact Joker and see if he's willing to fly us there…" his voice trailed off as they entered the kitchen to see Ashley waiting for them wearing her Spectre uniform, a bag slung over her shoulder. "Um… Ash? What are you doing?

Ashley gave John a look that was all business "I'm ready to leave when you are Skipper."

John's eyes widened as he realized Ashley had shifted to "soldier mode". "No. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no! I thought we agreed that one of us would always be home to watch Lily."

"I called Sarah," Ashley said "She, Lynn, and Abby are coming to watch her while we're gone."

"Well call them back, because there is no way I'm letting you go!" John said "This could get dangerous, Ash."

Ashley cocked an eyebrow skeptically "More dangerous than fighting the Reapers?"

"This is different." John said firmly "If something goes wrong I don't want Lily to lose _both_ her parents!"

"Then we will just have to make sure nothing goes wrong." Carn said, coming up behind them.

John spun around to face his father "_We_?"

"You didn't think I was going to sit on the sidelines did you." Carn said his tone firm. "Or need I remind you who it was who taught you to fire a gun?"

"That was Mom," John said.

"Was it? Oh, that's right, I taught _Alice_ to shoot." Carn said with a nostalgic smile. "Regardless, I can take care of myself son."

John wasn't backing down however "But you're too-"

"Old?" Carn grinned "Tell that to the N7 squad I led in the Reaper War. I believe they dubbed me 'That Crazy Old Man who can make krogan cower in terror'. It doesn't exactly flow off the tongue I'll admit but it was accurate."

"But still-"

"_John_" Ashley growled, giving him her patented "Williams' Glare" "We're coming."

Garrus shot John an impatient look "Just let them come, we're wasting time."

John sighed "Fine,"

"Excellent," Carn said, sounding rather chipper all of a sudden as he walked away. "I'll go tell Hannah and meet you at the Normandy once I get my gear. Don't leave without me."

"Sure," John mumbled, moving towards Ash and his bedroom to get what few things he needed that weren't already on the Normandy "Wouldn't dream of it."

Once he had packed, he and Ashley said goodbye to Hannah and Lily, telling her they needed to go on a 'business' trip and should be back in a few weeks at the most, then they headed out, Garrus having his things already on board the Normandy because of his honeymoon with Alice that he should have been on right now. Carn made a quick side trip to his and Hannah's apartment before meeting them at the docks.

"I must admit," Carn said as they walked through the crowded docks to the Normandy's airlock "Serving under my own son is something I never expected to be doing."

"Just don't start telling Joker baby stories okay?" John pleaded. "I really don't need the added embarrassment."

Carn tsked disapprovingly "Now, now, have I ever done that?"

"Yes." John said flatly as he shouldered his way around a group of asari.

"What about the rest of the crew?" Ashley asked, taking pity on her husband and changing the subject as they approached the Normandy's airlock. "Are they coming?"

"EDI can handle all necessary crew functions if needed." John replied as they walked through the airlock into the ship. "I didn't want to bother…anyone…else…" he stopped in his tracks as they entered the CIC, his mouth falling open in shock. "What the hell?"

Packed into the CIC, waiting for instructions, was almost every single person that had ever been a part of the Normandy's ground team.

"Shepard!" Liara exclaimed "We were wondering when you'd get here!"

John's mouth just kept opening and closing like a fish, absolutely speechless. Next to him, Ashley grinned "Why am I not surprised?"

John finally managed to find his voice "What-? How-? What are you all doing here?"

"Helping you rescue Alice of course!" Joker said from where he stood with EDI "You didn't think we'd just let you do this all by yourself did you?"

"But… don't you all have other obligations?" John managed to ask.

Jack grinned "I got leave from Sanders to help out."

"I convinced Brynn to let me join up." Jacob said, "Man, was she _not_ happy, but I couldn't not do this you know?"

Tali nodded in agreement "And I have Kal being looked after by Temperance."

"You actually think that geth can properly look after an infant quarian?" John said skeptically.

"She's been doing a good job so far." Tali shrugged "Besides, Rahn promised to check in when she could."

"I have all my Broker equipment on the ship anyways." Liara added. "And Zaeed and Kasumi are out using their contacts to gather information for us."

Javik snorted "I just had nothing better to do." He said, causing Liara to punch him in the arm.

"Wrex couldn't make it so he commanded me to help you! Not that he needed to ask." Grunt said with a… well, grunt.

Vega grinned, clapping Grunt on the shoulder with his cybernetic arm "Hell yeah! Nobody messes with the Normandy Crew! Those _pendejos_ won't know what hit 'em, right Loco?"

Samara stepped forward "Mr. Vega is correct, just as you have stood by us in our hours of need, so too will we stand by you in yours."

"Agreed," Chakwas said, pushing her way through the crowd "We won't abandon you and Garrus Commander."

"Besides," Adams said as he, Ken, Gabby, Cortez, and Traynor joined Chakwas. "You need our help."

"Who else would keep the drive core from exploding?" Ken said, slinging an arm around Gabby.

"And keep this idiot from screwing things up?" Gabby added, elbowing Ken in the ribs good-naturedly.

"Or handle communications?" Traynor said with a bright smile.

"And who would pilot the Kodiak? Vega?" Cortez said, jabbing a thumb in the marine's direction.

John could hardly speak. He knew his crew cared about him but to see how much they were willing to help was overwhelming. John glanced at Garrus. He'd remained silent the entire time, and his expression was almost unreadable, but John thought he saw something glimmer in his eyes: gratitude… and determination.

John finally managed to speak "I… I guess I really shouldn't be surprised at this point… but thank you, all of you." He grinned "Now let's go make these people know why even the Reapers knew you never mess with the Normandy crew."

"We're ready to leave when you are Commander." A voice behind him said, John turned and saw Miranda standing at the airlock, a duffle over her shoulder, and wearing that white catsuit for the first time John had seen in almost 2 years.

"Miranda?" he said, utterly shocked; of all people, he would have thought Miranda would have been the one who would be unable to make it, yet here she was.

The former Cerberus operative gave him a small smile. "Reporting for duty, Commander."

John was stunned "B-But… don't you-?"

Miranda's eyes twinkled in amusement at his confusion. "Officially, I'm on 'vacation', so I should be clear to help you for the next few weeks."

John grinned "Well in that case," he stepped to the side, making a show of gesturing for Miranda to proceed into the ship. "Welcome aboard Councilor Lawson."

…

_Where am I?_

Alice's thoughts were a confused muddle as she swam in the sea of darkness, searching for a way out. Distantly, she could hear voices conversing with one another. She couldn't make out all the words, but one voice seemed to belong to a turian, and the other, a salarian.

"…_you sure… sedative won't… adverse effects on…" _the turian was saying.

"…_positive… perfectly safe… specially designed…"_ the salarian responded

"_If… sure… she… no mistakes… don't…"_

The voices faded away into an unintelligible whisper as Alice felt herself being dragged deeper into the darkness. Scenes flashed before her eyes in one instant and were gone the next. She was a ship that looked a lot like the Normandy, except that it was entirely black and possessed only one engine attached to its wings, not two. She saw a young man who looked a lot like her brother, though several of his features were more akin to the pictures she'd seen of Ashley's father throwing a shockwave with biotics. She saw a krogan that looked oddly familiar working in a medbay. And finally, she saw John in his armor with an assault rifle in his hands, running from cover to cover as rounds whizzed through the air around him. He took shelter behind a large crate, and Alice noticed that he was breathing heavily. Suddenly, his breath hitched, and John's eyes widened in pain. Alice watched in horror as John clutched at his chest and toppled over in slow motion, like a titan being felled. As the darkness consumed her completely, she could barely hear Ashley cry John's name…

**A/N: Hopefully this chapter was better than the last one. Please, PLEASE let me know what I did well and what I can improve on!**


	4. Ghosts of the Past

**A/N: …I'll admit, I expected the last chapter to get more of a response. I kinda feel like nobody is reading this. **** I know people ARE reading it but still… (A HUGE thank you CommanderHawke667 for taking the time to review last chapter btw).**

**P.S. I also went back and changed Lily's age from 2 to 3 years old. Originally this fic was supposed to take place over several months, but I realized that I couldn't properly work that into the story without also killing the sense of urgency I wanted to convey, so I moved up the timeframe.**

4: Ghosts of the Past

_Garrus shifted nervously as he waited for Alice to join him at the car. He stuck his hand in his pocket and fiddled with the small velvet box there for what must have been the millionth time. "Hey big guy," Garrus perked up at the sound of Alice's voice. He turned to see her striding over to him, wearing a simple black dress. _

_Garrus grinned "Glad you could make it" He opened the car door, beckoning her to sit inside._

_Alice cocked an eyebrow at Garrus but nevertheless got in the car, "You're acting awfully formal tonight." She said as Garrus got in the driver's seat beside her. "What's the occasion?" _

_Garrus grinned "Today is the anniversary of the day we first met."_

_Alice's eyes widened "Oh," she smirked "Didn't you almost knock me to the ground as I was leaving the elevator to the Council Chambers?" _

_Garrus shot her a teasing glare "If I remember correctly it was YOU who almost knocked ME to the ground." He said as he started the car._

_Alice chuckled as the car lifted into the air and shot into the traffic of the Presidium. "So where are we going, some fancy restaurant?"_

_Garrus shook his head "Not quite," Without warning he yanked the controls down, sending the nose of the hover-car up into a steady incline. They rose above the traffic and landed on one of the large walkways at the top of the Presidium. _

_Alice rolled her eyes and unbuckled, getting out of the car "Of course, I got all nice and dressed up and you just want to have another shooting competition."_

_Garrus grinned as he climbed out of the car "As fun as that would be, we both know I would win."_

_Alice glared at Garrus "Is that a challenge big guy?"_

_Garrus opened the trunk of the car "Maybe, but right now I thought it would be nice if we did something a little more relaxing." He pulled out a picnic basket and smiled at Alice._

"_I thought you weren't allowed to picnic on the Presidium outside designated areas Mr. C-Sec Officer." Alice teased._

_Garrus grinned "You're not, but who would dare tell the sister and best friend of Commander Shepard 'no'?"_

"_You're such a bad turian." _

"_I know."_

_They laid out a large blanket and sat down next to each other on it. Inside the basket were two subs, one consisting of a variety of dextro meat for Garrus, and the other a cocktail of various ingredients and spices that could barely stay inside the buns for Alice. While they ate, their conversations ranged from discussing the latest news about the old Normandy crew to trying to one-up each other with tales of their kills. _

_Eventually, they had both finished their meals and were packing up when Alice said "I'll admit, this was fun."_

"_Oh?" Garrus cocked a brow plate at this._

_Alice nodded "Yeah, it's not often we get to just sit around and talk about nothing in particular, especially in the past year." _

_Garrus nodded, he had been officially given Spectre status almost a year ago and was assigned to the Normandy Task Force as John's second-in-command. Alice had been offered the job as well, but had turned it down to instead help Liara with her Shadow Brokering. This meant that they didn't get to spend nearly enough time together as they had once been able to._

"_Listen, Alice…" Garrus said nervously "Does it… bother you that we don't get to spend enough time together?"_

_Alice shrugged as she finished folding up the blanket "A bit, but I knew when I turned down the job that this would happen."_

"_Then why did you?" Garrus asked._

_Alice shook her head "I knew that you and John didn't need my help, but Liara did. Besides, spending too much time with someone is not always a good thing." She looked out over the Presidium. "That said… I do wish sometimes that I had taken the job, just so I could be closer to you."_

Time to make my move._ Garrus took Alice's hands in his, causing her to look back at him. "These past few months, I've been thinking a lot about where this was headed and… I…" his voice got caught in his throat. _It's not that hard Vakarian, just say it. Get down on your knee like the vids say and…

"_Garrus…" Alice cupped his scarred cheek, silencing his inner turmoil "Will you marry me?"_

_For a moment, Garrus couldn't speak. His brain was having trouble understanding what she'd just said. Finally, Garrus chuckled "I… was actually about to ask you the same thing." He reached into his pocket and pulled out the velvet box, flipping it open to reveal a platinum ring._

_Alice's eyes widened "Oh… uh… sorry… Do you want to…?"_

_Garrus grinned and got down on one knee. "Alice Shepard," he said his voice now steady. "Will you marry me?" _

"_HELL YEAH I WILL!" Alice squealed in delight as she tackled Garrus in a passionate kiss._

_Five minutes later they were arrested for public indecency…_

…Garrus bolted awake. He looked around, noticing that he was on his cot in the Normandy's main battery. For a moment he looked around frantically. _Where's Alice?_ Then it all came back to him and the pain in his chest returned. _Gone_. He got up, letting out a frustrated sigh when he checked the time. They weren't due to arrive at Illium for several more hours. Garrus started pacing back and forth, trying to shake off the last vestiges of sleep. He couldn't just sit here and wait. He needed to do something, _anything_.

Snarling, Garrus left the main battery, making his way to the elevator. Maybe he could get some target practice done down in the shuttle bay. Immediately he dismissed that idea. Vega and Cortez had elected to sleep in the shuttle bay on spare cots to make room and Garrus would rather not wake them up, especially after they had been kind enough to join them in this endeavor. He decided that a visit to the CIC would be a good idea. The only person he'd have to worry about bothering was Joker, and the Normandy's pilot was a sound sleeper.

He was about to enter the elevator when he heard a voice speak up behind him "Out for a late night stroll are we?"

Garrus spun around and saw Carn leaning against the door to the men's bathroom, a small smile on his face. "Couldn't sleep," he gave in way of a reply.

Carn nodded "You're not the only one. I'm pretty sure all of us are having trouble getting rest considering what happened."

Garrus couldn't help the condescending snort he gave. "_Everyone's_ having trouble sleeping? They're not the ones whose wife has been kidnapped and is currently having Spirits know what done to her." He immediately regretted what he said "Sorry, I shouldn't have acted like that."

Carn shook his head "I don't blame you. I know how terrible this is for you."

Garrus chided himself. _Of course he does, Alice is his daughter after all._ "What are you doing up?"

Carn looked away "You could say I was waiting for you to show up."

Garrus' mandibles, shifted into a frown "Why?"

Carn shrugged "We've never really had a chance to talk much, man to man."

Garrus nodded, he had noticed that whenever he'd talked with either of Alice's parents, she'd always been with him. "Alright, what do you want to talk about?" he asked stiffly.

Carn smiled "Relax, I'm not interrogating you. I just want to have a friendly chat."

A small growl escaped Garrus, "I'm not in the mood for a 'friendly chat'."

Carn rolled his eyes, and with a sharp pang Garrus noticed how Alice rolled her eyes in the exact same manner. "When you've been a soldier as long as I have, you realize that brooding on your fears is just going to get you killed. Some come on and join me for a cup of coffee- or whatever the turian equivalent is- and let me get your mind off Alice for a little while."

Garrus cocked a brow-plate "And how exactly are you going to do that?"

Carn shot him a grin and held up a holo-screen "By teaching you the fine art of playing checkers."

…

Ashley woke up when an elbow smashed into her jaw.

Suddenly awake and alert, Ashley's soldier instincts kicked in. Immediately she surveyed the situation and breathed a sigh of relief when she realized that she was safe in her and John's quarters. She then noticed that John wasn't peacefully slumbering next to her, but was instead tossing and turning, tangling the covers as he made distressing sounds and occasionally lashed out like he was fighting somebody off. Ashley immediately grew worried; John hadn't suffered a nightmare like this in months and normally if he accidently hit her, he would immediately wake up and start apologizing profusely.

"John? John?" Ashley grabbed his arms by the wrists so he didn't hit her again and started calling his name. "John, wake up. John it's alright, it's not real."

Slowly, her husband's struggling ceased and he opened his eyes. Ashley felt a painful ache in her chest when she saw that a red glow was now shining through his pupils. _Oh John…_

"A-A-Ashley?" John's normally so strong voice that could move armies and inspire millions was now a shattered wreck. Without warning John grabbed Ashley and pulled her into a tight hug, holding onto her as if she were his last link in the darkness.

Ashley returned the gesture "It's alright John, I'm here." John trembled and Ashley heard choked gasps as the unthinkable happened.

Commander John Shepard started to cry.

Ashley's heart ached as she listened to the normally immovable Commander break down. What was worse was that this wasn't the first time John had broken down and cried after a nightmare. No one else, not even Alice, knew just how vulnerable John Shepard had become beneath his impenetrable exterior. No one but Ashley knew just how much the Reaper War had haunted John. She hated seeing him like this, and wished with all her heart that she could take the pain away, yet knew that all she could do was comfort him when it came.

"I… I saw them t-taking y-you and L-Lily…" John croaked out "I… I tried to stop them… but m-my legs wouldn't work… I… I…"

"Shhh," Ashley whispered softly in his ear. "It's alright, I'm here, everything's fine…"

"No…" John said, his words now colored with fiery anger as well as tumultuous despair "Everything is not alright… Alice is currently having God knows what done to her and there's nothing I can do to stop it…"

"We'll find her John," Ashley reassured him "We'll get her back."

"I know…" John pulled away just enough so that Ashley could see into his brilliant blue eyes, moist with tears, and dimmed with the ghosts of the Reapers. "Ash… if anything happens to me… if I… promise me that you won't go looking for revenge… that you'll go straight home and stay with Lily… and never _ever_ abandon her… promise me…"

"John…" Ashley couldn't believe what she was hearing.

"Please…" John begged "I need to know that Lily will always have at least one of her parents there for her."

Ashley nodded "Alright… but only if you promise the same."

John's eyes fell "Ash…"

"Take it or leave it Skipper, that's my deal."

John slowly nodded "Alright…"

…

Illium had been utterly devastated in the Reaper War. Once, most of Illium's surface had been covered in a gigantic sprawling metropolis. Now, the once proud spires that had displayed the might of the asari were little more than piles of rubble. Over the past four years, the people of Illium had worked hard to return their planet to its former "glory" and had succeeded in rebuilding several residential areas. Because of the destruction of most of Illium's spaceports and marketplaces, dozens of orbital stations were set up by companies to act as centers of commerce until the reconstruction was complete, offering many services including ferrying people to and from the planet's surface. It was with one of these stations that the Normandy docked, since there was currently no spaceport large enough on Illium to land at.

Disembarking the ship, Garrus, Carn, John, Ashley, Vega, and Samara forced their way through the crowd. "Do you have any idea where Dorrak might be?" John asked his father.

Carn shrugged "Last I heard she was working with the 'indentured services'."

"Once a slaver, always a slaver I guess." Ashley said.

"Actually the way I hear it, she's very good at writing up contracts that cannot be manipulated by the employer to extend the time of servitude. No doubt thanks to her slaver experience" Carn said.

"You seem awfully defensive of her," Vega noted with a sly grin "Is there something we should know?"

"No." Carn said sharply, shooting a hard glare at the recent N7 graduate.

"Woah, easy there Pops. It was just a question. No need to get angry." Vega said

"If you're implying that I _cheated_ on my _wife_, then yes there is a _very_ good reason for me to get angry." Carn growled out.

"Enough"Garrus snapped "We're wasting time; we should start by checking the nearest Indentured Services office and see if we can get an employee manifest."

John nodded "EDI, can you locate the nearest Indentured Services office?"

"**One moment," **EDI's cool voice said over the com **"I have found it; there is an office on each station, I'll put a waypoint on your map for the one on this station."**

"Thanks EDI" John said.

Garrus looked down at his omni-tool and sure enough there was a small pulsing dot on the map in the left wing of the station. They pushed their way through the crowds as fast as they could, and finally arrived at the offices an hour later. Like most of the businesses on the station, the Indentured Services office was a small, cramped hole-in-the-wall that was mainly composed of several asari receptionists behind desks with terminals in front of them.

"Welcome to Illium Indentured Services," one of the receptionists said with a cheery smile as the group approached her "How may I assist you?"

"We're looking for one of your employees" John said, leaning forward "Does the name Vel Dorrak ring a bell?"

The receptionist's smile immediately vanished "I'm sorry, but I'm not allowed to give out any information regarding our employees without their consent."

Garrus snarled "Are you shitting m-"

"Can you get her a message then?" Carn injected, cutting Garrus' outburst off. "Could you tell her that an old friend the Alliance needs her help?"

The receptionist shook her head "I'm sorry, but-"

"Are you _sure_?" John interrupted his tone forceful.

The receptionist hesitated "I suppose I could send a message further up the chain but it would take a few days at least to get it to her."

John smiled coldly, "Are you sure you can't make things go a _little_ bit faster." He nodded to Garrus "The matter is rather urgent and I would hate for my friend here to get _impatient_."

The receptionist shot the turian a nervous glance. Garrus made a show of flaring his mandibles and baring his teeth in a growl. "I-I suppose…"

"Hey! What's going on here!" they turned to see another asari in a security uniform marching up to them.

Ashley stepped forward "Spectre business, move along Officer."

The security guard snorted "'Spectre business' my ass, since when do Spectre's go around harassing poor receptionists? I want an explanation in the next five seconds or I'm placing you all under arrest."

Vega cocked an eyebrow "You're awfully confidant for someone facing several heavily armed soldiers."

"This station is equipped with the latest security systems." The guard challenged "You so much as pull a gun or activate your biotics and you'll be electrocuted so badly you'll be seeing stars for weeks."

"Peace, Officer," Samara said in her ever-tranquil voice "We are merely looking for a friend who works for this company. We require her assistance urgently."

The guard snorted again "And you couldn't have just called the company headquarters and ask for her there, you had to harass one of their offices?"

"We tried," Carn said "But they wouldn't let us speak with her." That was only half true, they did indeed contact IIS headquarters, but they did that only so EDI could hack into their systems and get them the information they wanted. Unfortunately, all the records EDI could find were dated before the Reaper War. They had hoped that one of the people who worked for IIS could point them in the right direction.

The guard frowned "Who is it you're looking for?"

"A batarian female by the name of Vel Dorrak," John said "You wouldn't happen to know her would you?"

The guard shook her head "No, but her name sounds familiar. Have you tried Varek station? A lot of batarians hang out there."

Carn shook his head "She's bonded to an asari; she doesn't have the highest opinion of her fellow batarians."

The guard shrugged "Then I'm afraid I can't help you. Now I must insist that you stop harassing this poor girl."

Garrus turned to shoot one last menacing glare at the receptionist "You'll do everything you can to make sure that she gets the message."

The girl nodded, trembling as she said "Y-Yes… o-of c-course."

Garrus nodded and followed the others away from the offices. _The only thing left to do now is wait_.

…

One day passed, then two, then three. It soon became clear to Garrus that the receptionist either hadn't kept her word, or had been unable to get the message to Vel. Garrus was growing restless, and often spent his time prowling the ship when he wasn't working on the main gun, shooting targets down in the cargo hold or sparing with anyone who was willing to go up against the angry turian (normally that was Grunt, Vega, and Jack but Jacob joined in occasionally).

Currently, Garrus had Vega in an unbreakable chokehold and was just waiting for the marine to tap out. Finally, Vega did just that, and Garrus released his grip, helping the marine to his feet. "Damn Scars," Vega said, rubbing his sore neck "Anybody ever tell you, you pack one hell of a punch?"

Garrus didn't reply. Though he would never admit it, Vega's cybernetic arm was powerful, and he was pretty sure he had cracked some plates. Garrus could understand why Vega had chosen to keep the cybernetic limb instead of getting it replaced with a cloned arm. "Do you want to go again?"

Vega shook his head "Nah, as fun as being knocked around by you is Scars, I think I'm done for now."

Garrus nodded and turned to the group of spectators who had gathered to watch the match. "Who's next?"

Grunt was unfortunately in the mess getting lunch, Jacob was busy making a call to Brynn, and Jack had been dragged off against her will to the medbay after Garrus had accidentally broken some of her ribs in their last match. So that meant that all his regular sparring partners weren't available. Briefly, his eyes fell on Miranda but he immediately dismissed the idea. _Never again_.

The last time he had sparred Miranda he had been sorely defeated. He'd learned that day that the ex-Cerberus operative's outfit wasn't just for showing off her… ahem… "assets", but also because it didn't restrict her movements at all, and that meant that she could utilize her speed and flexibility to the fullest. And boy was she flexible. Every time Garrus thought he had her pinned, she would wiggle her way out of his grasp. (It was not lost on him that Vega was a little too eager to spar Miranda once she'd beaten Garrus.) The worst part was that she hadn't even used her biotics, unlike Jacob who would usually throw up a barrier to protect him from the force of Garrus' strikes, or Jack who used her biotics to amplify the strength of her attacks. No, Garrus knew when someone was better than him, and it was clear that her time as the human Councilor had not lessened Miranda's combat prowess. He would not let himself be lured into another match only to have his pride wounded again.

"Mind if I join in?" Garrus turned to see Carn emerging from the crowd, wearing an Alliance sleeveless shirt and workout pants.

Garrus immediately noticed the grin that was on Carn's lips, _the same grin John gets, the same grin Al-_ He immediately tossed that thought aside, incomplete. "Sure," he said, and couldn't resist adding "Provided you're not feeling too old."

Carn's eyes glinted at the challenge. "Oh, you're going to regret those words boy." he said as he stepped forward, still grinning.

Garrus shifted into a basic fighting stance. "We'll see about that."

Garrus had never sparred Carn before, but he had sparred John and Alice. If Carn fought the same way as his children, then this would be a nice challenge. Garrus threw a punch, testing Carn's style. He saw Carn move to block the punch, and then the next thing he knew he was laying on the ground, one arm twisted behind his back, and the other arm pinned by Carn's hand, and Carn's knee digging into Garrus' back.

"I win," Carn said cheerfully.

"I can still get out of this!" Garrus growled.

Carn chuckled "Can you?"

Garrus tried struggling but soon realized that he was numb all over, hindering his movements "What did you do?" he asked in disbelief.

"Vital nerve cluster in the cowl," Carn explained "Usually it's impossible to hit, but if you aim _just_ _right_ you can temporarily disable your opponent."

Garrus nodded, he was slowly getting his strength back, he just needed to distract Carn for a few more seconds "I'd almost forgotten about that, how'd you learn about it?"

"By accident actually," Carn said, "There was a turian on my N7 squad that I sparred with regularly between missions. One day I accidentally struck the cluster and he collapsed on the floor. For a minute I was worried I'd done something horrible like breaking his spine. Fortunately- Ah ha!" Garrus felt Carn strike his cowl again when he tried to break free of the pin and immediately went numb again. "Anyways, as I was saying; fortunately he regained mobility in a few seconds and explained what I had done. It occurred to me that Marauders might have the same weakness so we gathered the rest of the team and practiced on the turian crewmembers of our ship until we had mastered the strike."

"And were you right?" Garrus asked, genuinely curious now "Did Marauders have the same weakness?"

"We never found out actually." Carn admitted "The Reaper War ended a few weeks later. Now come on, get up." Garrus realized that Carn was no longer pinning him and scrambled to his feet. "Now that we've established that I can beat you with ease…" Garrus barely had time to block as Carn sent a punch to his face without warning.

Stepping to the side as he deflected the blow, Garrus aimed a punch at Carn's gut, only to find that he was no longer there. He ducked as he saw a kick aimed at his head out of the corner of his eye. Garrus spun, retaliating with a kick of his own. Carn deflected the attack, slipping under the leg and sending a punch to Garrus' ribs, only for the turian to move out of the way in the last second. Carn followed through with another punch, this time to Garrus' unscarred mandible. The blow connected, but Garrus didn't let that stop him as he quickly countered with a series of fast jabs, managing to hit Carn in the stomach. They continued to trade blows back and forth, neither wavering despite the power of their strikes. Garrus wasn't sure how long they fought, all he knew was that he was starting to get tired, and from the way he was breathing heavily, so was Carn.

The end came suddenly. Garrus threw a punch that Carn managed to catch as he sidestepped. Garrus felt Carn's leg come around the back of his own when Carn yanked him off balance, sending him tumbling back as Carn's leg swept his feet out from under him. Landing on his back, Garrus knew he had to act fast or Carn would have him pinned. He spun his legs out like a pendulum, catching Carn off guard, and knocking him off his feet. As soon as Carn hit the ground, Garrus was on him, shoving him down onto his stomach and twisting Carn's arm behind his back while trapping his other arm with his free hand, much like what Carn had done to him a few minutes ago.

Carn chuckled "You're fond of irony aren't you?"

"A bit." Garrus admitted, "You going to yield?"

"Very well, I can see when I'm beat." Carn tapped the floor with his hand.

Garrus got off of Carn and helped him up, his mandibles spread into a broad grin. "I haven't had that much of a challenge since the first time I sparred Wrex."

Carn grinned back, rubbing his shoulder "I was going easy on you."

"_Sure_ you were."

Carn cocked an eyebrow "You want to go again boy?"

Garrus smirked, he was glad to have something to distract him from… everything. "Bring it on old man!"

…

"Shepard, are you aware that your father and Garrus have been fighting in the cargo hold for the past hour?"

John looked up from the datapad as EDI's platform approached him in the mess. "No, who's winning?" he held up a hand before EDI could answer "Wait, let me guess. My dad right?"

EDI shook her head, "They appear to be evenly matched."

John cocked an eyebrow, he knew Garrus was one of the best hand-to-hand combatants in the Hierarchy, but John's father was practically a _god_ of hand-to-hand. John didn't even remember all the martial arts his father had mastered. Granted there were people out there who were even better than Carn -Thane had been one of them- but John had met only a few other people who could go toe-to-toe with his father and keep up for an _hour._

John shrugged "He's probably going easy on him."

"I doubt that," John turned to see Miranda leaving the elevator. "I was watching them fight, and I have to say they seemed pretty evenly matched."

John smirked "You haven't seen my dad go all out, Miranda. He's one of the best there is, nobody can beat him in close quarters when it counts." _Except Anderson_. He added quietly.

Miranda eyed John suspiciously "Sounds like you're idolizing him a bit."

John shrugged; maybe he did idolize his father a bit. After all, when he was just a kid he'd thought Carn was actually Superman. But what's wrong with a little hero-worship? Everyone needed someone to look up to, even the great Commander Shepard. "Did you need something Miranda?"

The human Councilor shook her head "No, I just came up to get something to eat." She made her way over to the small kitchen, opening the refrigerator and pulling out one of her premade "So-Healthy-it's-Disgusting" sandwiches (no seriously, that's the brand name).

John shook his head and turned to EDI "Any word from IIS?"

EDI shook her head "No, it is likely at this point that the message never got through."

John sighed; he'd figured as much "Alright, what next?"

Grunt, who was with them in the mess eating an entire roast pyjack let loose a booming laugh "Ha! We storm their headquarters of course!"

"I wouldn't recommend that." Miranda said from the kitchen "Not only would it cause a diplomatic incident, but it would also-"

"Hold on a second Miranda." John said thoughtfully, "I think Grunt might be on to something."

Miranda gave him an incredulous look "You _can't_ be serious."

John merely grinned.

…

_BANG!_

The doors to Illium Indentured Services headquarters were blown apart as Grunt charged through them, roaring viciously and causing everyone inside the lobby to scream in terror. Striding in behind him, were John, Garrus, Carn, Vega, Jack, and Ashley. Garrus, Carn, and Ashley all had their assault rifles out, Jack was currently wreathed in biotics, and Vega was wearing a custom-made gun modified to attach to his cybernetic arm that Tali had built for him. John was the only one who did not have any weapons at the ready.

John calmly walked up to the main receptionist desk while Grunt continued to terrorize the other denizens of the lobby with his thunderous roaring. "Excuse me," John said to the receptionist like he hadn't just come barging into the building with a bloodthirsty krogan, a pissed off turian, and three of the Alliance's best soldiers. "I'm looking for Vel Dorrak, she's a batarian, works here in writing up service contracts. Could you get her for me please?"

The receptionist looked from John, to Grunt, to Vega, to Carn, to Garrus, to Ashley, and back to John before her eyes rolled up into her head and she fell on the floor, having passed out. John sighed "Why do they always do that?" He looked out at the other people in the lobby "Does anyone know where we can find Vel Dorrak? We need her help."

"With what?"

John turned to see a batarian woman, roughly in her 40s step out of one of the elevators, a stern expression on her face. Carn smiled and holstered his rifle, walking up to his old friend. "Vel! Good to see you! How have you be-"

_Smack!_

John cocked an eyebrow as Vel slapped his father. "That was for barging in here and terrifying everyone." She said flatly. "You're lucky I saw it was you on the security cams and came down here before the guards showed up."

Carn jerked a thumb in John's direction "It was his idea."

Vel shot a brief glare at John "Well, you said you needed my help?"

John nodded and motioned for everyone to put away their weapons "Yeah, is there somewhere private we can talk?"

Vel snorted "You break in here, waving your guns around and scaring everyone with your big-ass krogan and you want to talk in _private_? Sorry pal, but after that, you don't get the luxury."

John was about to force the issue when Garrus marched up to Vel "Fine, we don't have time to argue." He thrust the insignia that was left by Alice's kidnappers in Vel's face. "Do you recognize this?"

Vel frowned and took the insignia from Garrus. She turned back to Carn "Alright, we'll talk in private, follow me." She motioned for Carn to follow her back to the elevator. When the others tried to join them, however, Vel held up her hand "Just Carn. I don't know nor trust the rest of you."

"Vel please," Carn insisted "This is my son, his wife, my son-in-law, and their crew, they can be trusted."

Vel's eyes narrowed as she examined each member of their party. "Family only."

Garrus and John joined Carn and Vel in the elevator, Ashley choosing to stay behind to make sure Grunt, Jack, and Vega didn't cause any trouble. They rode the elevator up to the third floor and passed through a maze of hallways lined with offices. John noticed that the inhabitants of each office were watching them with wide eyes as they passed. Finally, they reached what John assumed was Vel's office and stepped inside, Vel shutting the door behind them.

As soon as they were alone, Vel glared at Carn "What's this about?"

"Did you hear about how my daughter was kidnapped the night after her wedding?" Carn asked.

Vel nodded "It was all over the news," she gestured to Garrus "I'm assuming this is her husband?"

Carn nodded "Yes,"

"So what do old 'friends' have to do with it?" she asked.

"We don't know," John said "The kidnappers left that insignia for us to find."

Vel snorted "So they're sending you on a wild goose chase?"

"Probably," John admitted "But right now it's the only lead we've got."

Vel snorted "And you couldn't have just called me? You had to storm the company headquarters?"

"We tried," Garrus growled out "but they wouldn't let us talk to you."

Vel frowned "That's odd…"

"Do you know anything that might be useful Vel?" Carn asked.

Vel shook her head "No," she seemed to think for a moment "But there was something… a couple weeks back, two humans, twins I think, came to me. They were looking for information on what happened to the slaves we took, particularly those from Mindoir. They said they were looking for their sister."

John frowned, that hardly seemed suspicious. But how would they know Vel had been part of the group that raided Mindoir? Javik had said that two of the people who took Alice had been twins after all. "Did they give you their names?"

Vel nodded "Nick and Jessie McDonnell."

John nodded and started toward the door, Garrus hot on his heels. He could have EDI and Liara search for them in the list of known survivors of Mindoir. Carn smiled at Vel "Thank you, contact us if you think of anything else."

Vel nodded "Of course."

…

"**I did just what you asked."**

The turian's mandibles flared into a smile "Good,"

"**I held up my end of the bargain, now where is she?" **the person on the other end of the call said bitterly.

The turian chuckled "Of course, of course. I'll send you the coordinates. It was nice doing business with you Mrs. Dorrak."

"**Go fuck yourself."** Vel snapped before abruptly cutting the connection.

The turian slowly shook his head "Tsk. So rude, I'm surprised she gets any customers." He immediately started to make another call.

"**What?"** the gruff voice on the other end of the line said as soon as the connection was established.

"She's on her way to pick up her mate. When she arrives, kill them both."

"**Acknowledged."** The gruff voice said before ending the call.

The turian turned around to watch his salarian accomplice work. "How are things coming along doctor?"

"Excellent. The acceleration is progressing exactly on schedule. Should be ready in a few days' time."

The turian nodded and walked over to the unconscious form of Alice Shepard on the operating table. Everything was going according to plan…


	5. Ghosts of the Present

**A/N: Quick update, but it's short. On the bright side, you finally get to see John and Garrus on the warpath! Well, sort of on the warpath… you'll see.**

5: Ghosts of the Present

John looked at the holopad in his hands for the hundredth time as he stood in the cockpit while the Normandy approached Elysium. The McDonnell twins, Nate and Jessie had indeed grown up on Mindoir and currently were living on Elysium. They had been one of the lucky few who managed to escape the batarian slavers. Their parents were confirmed dead and their older sister was missing, assumed to be taken by the slavers. John sighed and rubbed his eyes; the more he thought about it, the more likely it seemed that they were being led on a wild goose chase. But what other choice did they have? They had nothing else to go on.

"You alright, Commander?" John turned to see Joker giving him a concerned look.

"I'm fine," he said half-heartedly.

Joker snorted "Like hell you are, you look almost as bad as you did in the Reaper War."

John didn't reply, his nightmares had been returning more and more these past few days. "I'll be fine once we get Alice back." He said, more to reassure himself than Joker.

Joker shook his head "You know, maybe you should join Garrus in the Cargo Hold for some sparring. Beating the ever-loving shit out of people seems to be doing wonders for him."

John doubted that Garrus was in much better shape than him, but remained silent nevertheless.

Elysium, like Illium and much of the galaxy, had been devastated in the Reaper War. Unlike Illium, Elysium had not been nearly as developed, so the task of rebuilding was much easier, though it would still be years before the human colony was back to its former glory. The Normandy docked at one of the recently rebuilt spaceports and John, Garrus, Carn, and Ashley disembarked with EDI, Miranda, Tali, and Javik in tow.

"Where to EDI?" John asked as he led their group through the crowds of Elysium's capital city Illyria.

"Dr. T'Soni's intel suggests that the McDonnell twins currently live in the east side of Illyria, in an area called 'Asphodel'."

Ashley spoke up "Let me guess; boring, lower middle-class, filthy, a mess, but not _too_ much of a mess?"

EDI nodded. "You are correct."

Miranda gave Ashley an approving nod "I take it you're interests extend to classical literature as well?"

Ashley grinned "Of course,"

"As _fascinating_ as your conversation is," Garrus growled out "We really need to get moving."

The walk to Asphodel was long and silent. Occasionally, Tali would strike up a conversation with Ashley or ask Miranda how things were with the Council, but for the most part everyone remained quiet. Asphodel was just as Ashley had predicted and John couldn't help but feel that their group was a little out of place. _Then again,_ he thought wryly, _we're always out of place._

EDI guided them through the winding streets to the McDonnell twins' home. They lived in a dirty old town house, with boarded up windows and cracked walls with the masonry starting to break; clearly the McDonnell twins hadn't bothered to be repair the damage their house had sustained in the war yet.

"Cover the exits." John said to the others as they neared the house, "Stop them if they try to escape." John waited until everyone but he, Garrus, and Carn had taken up positions at the townhouse's other entrances. When he was sure everyone was ready, John walked up to the door and politely knocked. "Excuse me, Nate and Jessie McDonnell, this is Commander Shepard, open the door please."

John cocked an eyebrow when he heard muffled swearing and scrambling from the other side of the door. A minute passed and then he heard the sound of a door banging open and someone crying out, followed by more swearing. John smirked as the door opened from the inside to reveal Tali standing there. "We caught them as they tried to run out the back. Ash and Miranda have it under control."

John, Garrus, and Carn followed Tali inside, and toward where the McDonnell twins were being restrained. The inside of the townhouse didn't look much better than the outside; the walls were chipped and crumbling, the floor was rickety and looked like it might break any second, cobwebs were numerous and every surface was coated in a fine layer of dust. "Clearly they haven't been here long." Carn noted.

In what passed for the townhouse's "living room", Ashley and Miranda had the twins restrained and shoved against the wall. John nodded to the others as he stepped forward. "Hello there boys," he said, with faux warmth hiding how cold he was on the inside. "In a hurry? What's wrong, afraid that I might be angry at you after you helped kidnap my sister?"

"Go to hell," the twin Miranda had pinned spat out.

John tsked and turned to Javik, "I don't suppose you could just get the information from their minds with your Touch."

Javik did not reply but stepped forward. He rested a hand on both of the twin's heads and held them there for almost five minutes before withdrawing them with a shake of his head. "There is something keeping me from accessing their knowledge."

"Ha!" the twin Miranda had pinned cried victoriously "Those implants work! Just like the Doc said!"

"Shut up Jessie!" snarled the other twin.

Carn frowned "Implants?"

EDI immediately scanned the twins with her visor "They have devices of an unknown make implanted into their cerebral cortex. It is possible to remove them but it would require bringing them back to the Normandy and performing extensive surgery."

John glanced at Garrus, understanding instantly passing between them. "Too slow," John said, he looked back at the twins. They were almost identical; although they wore different clothes and they had their hair cut in different ways. "Miranda, let- Jessie was it? -let Jessie go."

There was a time when Miranda would have questioned John's judgment, but after all these years Miranda had learned to trust the Commander. As soon as Miranda released he hold on Jessie, the twin made a run for it.

He didn't get very far.

A gunshot sounded from Garrus' pistol and the twin fell to the floor, clutching the new hole in his leg and swearing up a storm. Not hesitating for a second, Garrus marched over to where Jessie lay and put his foot on the wound. "Where is Alice?" he snarled out.

"I'm not telling you shi- Aaaahgh!" Jessie cried out as Garrus applied stomped down on the wound.

"_Where_!" Garrus growled "I'll break ever bone in your body if you don't answer me! Now tell me. Where. Is. Alice!"

"Go fuck yourself!" Jessie snapped.

Garrus snarled and took out a knife, kneeling down to the twin "I'll cut the answer out if I have t-"

"Stop!" John smiled coolly as he turned back to the twin Ashley still had pinned- Nate he assumed. "Stop! I'll tell you everything!"

John motioned for Garrus to get off Jessie, "I had hoped so. Where is Alice?"

"We don't know!" John frowned and nodded to Garrus, who, with a sadistic grin, once again stepped on the other twin's wound, causing him to cry out again. "Please stop!" Nate begged. "We don't know because we split up after we were clear of the Citadel."

John analyzed this information. "Do you know who might be able to tell us where they took her?"

Nate nodded "Yeah, the asari that was with us, Aniri Viara. She could tell you. Now please, just let us go."

Carn stepped forward "One more question. How did you know that Vel Dorrak had once been a part of the slaver group who raided Mindoir?"

Nate gave Carn a confused look "What are you talking about? We don't know anyone named Vel Dorrak!"

Carn frowned "You recently went to her to find out what happened to the slaves taken from Mindoir in an attempt to locate your sister."

Nate's expression grew angry "Our sister's dead!" he shot a venomous glare at John "Thanks to _you_! We learned she was a slave on Aratoht but before we could try and save her you decided it would be a good idea to _murder_ the entire system! That's why we joined up with them, so you would know what it feels like when you lose your sister!"

John expected to feel a pang of guilt at this revelation, but all he felt was cold. "So you never talked to Vel Dorrak?"

"No"

John considered this, the implication that Vel had lied to them was disturbing, but now was not the time to worry about it. "Then we're done here."

Nate's anger immediately evaporated "Y-You'll let us go right?" he asked hopefully.

John smiled "Of course, I'll set you free."

Jessie snarled from where he lay on the floor "I don't suppose you could be bothered to give me some medi-"

_BANG!_

"JESSIE!" Nate cried out as John casually drew his gun and put a bullet in his twin brother's brain. Nate broke free of Ashley's grasp and charged John "I'LL KILL YOU!"

John didn't even bother looking at Nate as he reached out with his biotics and effortlessly snapped the remaining twin's neck.

John turned to see the horrified expressions on Miranda, Tali, Carn, and Ashley's faces. "What?"

"You said you would let them go…" Tali mumbled, "You never go back on your word…"

Garrus moved to stand beside John "He did the right thing. They might have told the others we were on to them."

Carn snorted "'On to them'? Do you seriously think that they haven't been leading us into a trap the whole time? It seems pretty likely to me."

EDI nodded "Your father is correct Commander; there is substantial evidence that supports Alice's kidnappers intentionally leaving a trail for us to follow, most likely into a trap."

"It doesn't matter," John said sternly. "It's the only lead we've got."

Miranda nodded "Of course Commander, we should head back to the Normandy now."

As the others followed Miranda out of the townhouse, John noticed that Ashley wasn't moving. She was just standing there, looking at the bodies of the McDonnell twins. "Ash, come on, we need to get moving." He reached out a hand to take her arm.

Ashley immediately recoiled from the contact, giving John a look that pierced his heart. "_Don't touch me_," she said coolly.

"Ash…" John started but she cut him off.

"_Don't. _Don't even _talk _to me." She said, ice coating her words "I don't know _who_ you think you are but you are _not_ the man I married."

John felt something deep inside him break as Ashley turned her back on him and walked away, never looking back.


	6. Ghosts of the Future

6: Ghosts of the Future

"Aaaahhhh!"

Carn looked up from the book he was reading to see Ashley throw John out of their room, followed by his duffle. John got to his feet as Ashley shut the door behind him, locking it. "Ash, can we please talk about this?!"

"We can 'talk' when you come to your senses!" Ashley said from behind the door "Until then, you can go sleep in the cargo hold for all I care!"

"You can't do this! IT'S _MY_ ROOM!" John cried helplessly.

"NOT ANYMORE!"

John swore angrily and kicked the door as hard as he could, stubbing his toe in the process.

"Looks like somebody got put in the dog house." Carn said with a small smirk, closing his book and straightening up from where he'd been leaning against the wall of the small hallway outside John and Ashley's room.

John turned to his father, his eyes widening in surprise "What are you doing up here?" he asked.

"Waiting for you to get kicked out." Carn said, gesturing to the duffle "I'm surprised it took so long, you two were fighting for a good half hour." He chuckled "It's pretty clear who won."

John scowled and picked up the duffle, heading to the elevator "Glad you're enjoying this so much."

Carn grinned and joined his son, "We all have to sleep on the couch at some point, John. I remember the first time Hannah and I had a serious argument,"

"Let me guess," John said bitterly "She was freaking out over something completely mundane right?"

"Actually she was completely justified." Carn said "Not that I realized it at the time. Anyways, she wouldn't speak to me for a week afterwards. Hell, she barely even acknowledged my existence. Worst week of my life. On the plus side, the make-up sex was _incredi_-"

John immediately clapped his hands over his ears "STOP! Right there, just STOP!" He knew his mom and dad's relationship was something his mom would often describe as being "torn right from a bad romance novel" but he didn't know the specifics, and quite frankly, didn't _want_ to know.

The elevator doors opened up to the crew deck, but before John could step out, Carn had pressed the button to close the doors again, locking them. "Actually, I want to talk about what you did to those two boys John."

Carn noticed how his son gave him an accusing glare at his words. "You too? What the hell is everyone's problem? I killed them, so what? They helped _kidnap_ Alice!"

Carn shook his head "Did you even listen to them? What they did was wrong, yes, but they were angry, they made a stupid mistake. They didn't deserve to _die_ for it."

John scoffed and looked towards the elevator door, not meeting his father's gaze "Like you wouldn't have done the same thing in a heartbeat."

"I wouldn't have." Carn said, causing John to immediately whip his head back to him. "And I had no intention of doing so at the time either."

"Oh, _really_?" John said, his voice mocking "You think I don't remember how protective you were of me and Alice when we were little? You think I don't remember how you nearly went on a rampage when we learned about Akuze? Don't you _dare_ lecture me you hypocrite."

Carn's heart ached at his son's words but he didn't let it show. "I know you're better than this John, and I think you know it too, that's why you're lashing out like a child."

John immediately rose to his full height, his expression growing hard as "Commander Shepard" came to the front. "I am not 'lashing out'. They deserved it!"

"Even if they did," Carn countered "You shouldn't have told Nate that you would let them go, then turn around and shoot his brother in front of his eyes. That was cruel, and no son of mine would _ever_ act like that."

"I didn't say I would let them go." John said coldly.

Carn frowned "What? Yes you did!"

"No I said I would set them 'free'." The smiled that appeared on John's face scared the hell out of Carn. "And I did. They're _free_; they're with their sister now."

To say that Carn was bothered by what his son said would be the understatement of the year. "You honestly expect me to believe that you killing them was out of _mercy_?!"

"Yes," John's voice was as cold as ice.

Carn hesitated before responding. "No you don't."

"Don't tell me what I do and do not think!" John snapped.

"I know you John," Carn said, "I know that you don't like to think about the problems you have with your temper, and that you try to rationalize it away. Alice is the same way." He sighed and rubbed his eyes. "You get _that_ pesky little trait from your mother's parents I'm afraid." He looked back at his son "I think that you're scared. You've always opposed someone else getting revenge through violence, but you've always had an excuse whenever you decided to get it yourself. And now, for the first time, you didn't have one."

John tensed "You're wrong."

"Am I?"

"Yes." With that, he punched the button to open the doors and walked out of the elevator

Carn sighed and shook his head "Oh John…"

…

Liara had managed to track Aniri Viara to an excavation site on the planet Nero that was digging up some ancient ruins. Apparently, she had arrived two days after Alice had been kidnapped. John gathered the entire squad down in the cargo hold to brief them on the mission. "The good news is that Liara believes Viara is still on the planet." John said, pacing back and forth in front of the assembled team. He found himself constantly trying to not look in Ashley's direction as she stood there in armor, rifle at the ready. "The bad news is that the site went dark a few hours ago. We have no idea what happened, it could be anything from a simple technical malfunction to a full blown mercenary invasion so we're going in expecting trouble. Our objective is to find Viara, if she's still alive. If she's not," John turned to their resident Prothean "Javik, can you still get information from Viara even if she's dead?" he asked, even though he already knew the answer.

Javik nodded "Yes, it may prove difficult depending on the state of her corpse, but I should be able to get the information we seek."

John nodded "Good, we'll split into teams of two, and sweep the place. Grunt you're with Jacob. Samara, you pair up with Jack. Tali you stick with Vega."

Vega grinned and slung an arm around Tali "Alright! Vega and Sparks! We're gonna have some _fun_!"

Tali shot Vega what John could only assume was a glare "I have a shotgun."

John resisted the urge to smirk as Vega quickly removed his arm from around Tali. "EDI, you're with Ashley. Javik, you're with Liara. Garrus, you're going with my dad. Miranda, you're with me." He noticed how Ash tensed a little at this. _Good_. "If any of you finds Viara, immediately contact the rest of us. Keep her alive if you can, but if you must, do not hesitate to shoot her."

The Normandy descended to the planet's surface. Nero fortunately had low enough gravity that the Normandy could safely land on the surface and still take off again. Fortunate, since fitting 14 people into the Kodiak would have been disastrous. The Normandy landed just outside the dig site, a large hole in the middle of the desert that covered 90% of the planet. John and his team departed from the Normandy as soon as the bay doors opened.

"Alright everyone, split up and find Viara." John said. As the squad dispersed, he looked around for Miranda, finally finding her speaking with Ashley. "Hey Miranda, this isn't the Council, we actually _do_ things besides talk!"

Miranda glanced over to John and exchanged a few more words with Ashley before moving to join him. "I'm ready to go, Commander."

John shot her a suspicious look "What were you and Ash talking about?"

"She wanted me to promise that I will beat you unconscious if you try anything stupid, since she won't be there to do it herself." Miranda said casually as they moved toward the entrance to the site.

John nodded, simultaneously touched and annoyed at Ashley, but letting the matter be.

Since there was only one entrance to the dig site, they all entered the same place, splitting up once they were inside. The dig site was surrounded by a large wall, the site consisting of a large number of catwalks and elevated buildings constructed along the sides of the pit and on bridges that spanned the gap. One pair would check each level, with John and Miranda going the deepest into the pit before they stopped to sweep, almost halfway down. They scanned room after room, building after building, but found nothing.

"No bodies, no sign of a struggle." Miranda noted.

"Kinda gives you déjà vu doesn't it?" John said.

He moved to the next room, rifle at the ready. Without warning, someone- no, some_thing_- jumped him, knocking his rifle out of his hands and sending him to the floor. John felt spiny hands wrap around his throat and start choking the life out of him. Then, next thing he knew, his assailant was gone and Miranda was standing over him, her biotics flaring around her in blue fire.

"Shepard, are you alright?" Miranda asked as her biotics died down.

John nodded and got to his feet with Miranda's assistance, "Yeah, I think so." He picked up his rifle from where it fell. "What was that?"

Miranda pointed. John followed her finger to see a salarian crumpled against the wall. "Did you kill him?"

Suddenly, the salarian moved, jolting upright "I guess not." Miranda said as she trained her pistol on the salarian.

"Wait," John said, holding up a hand "I think he's trying to say something." Sure enough, the salarian's lips was moving, trying to form words as blood trickled from his mouth.

"Shepard, ten seconds ago he was trying to _kill_ you!" Miranda said as John slowly approached the dying salarian "Don't force me to make good on my promise to Ashley!"

"Miranda shush." John said, as he crept closer to the salarian. "I think I can almost make it out."

John strained his ears and sure enough, could just barely hear the salarian whisper "_When the Eternal Cycle is broken, when the Savior has begun to Fall, He will Rise, and consume all, in the Burning Darkness…_" with those final words, the salarian shuddered, and took his final breath.

Slowly, John turned to Miranda, his heart clenched in an icy grip that sent shivers through him. "Miranda? Did you…?"

"I did," Miranda sounded just as disturbed as he was "It… it sounded like… a prophecy…" she immediately shook her head "But that makes no sense… prophecy's aren't real, not really…"

"That sounded pretty real to me." John said. "And I bet I know what the 'Eternal Cycle' and 'the Savior' are."

"John, you can't _possibly_ think, that-"

"The 'Eternal Cycle' is the Reapers." John finished "Yeah I do, and that means that…"

"The 'Savior' is you." Miranda shook her head "John, I know that we've seen some strange things in our time, but this is just absurd. Even if by some miracle a pervious species could see into the future and see us, yet not be able to see the Reapers coming and stop them, it could mean millions of things! I've read enough literature to know that 'prophecy' is vague for a reason."

John sighed "I know, you're right, I just have a bad feeling all of a sudden."

"You're just spooked, that's all." Miranda insisted "How would he have been able to learn about this prophecy anyways? From some old script? Any translation would be unreliable at best. From something like a Prothean beacon? You needed to be able to _think_ like a Prothean to understand it. No, he was clearly insane."

John considered what Miranda was saying. "You're right." He frowned as he looked back at the salarian "But how did he get that way?" A horrible thought occurred to him "Miranda, has the Council ever approved archeological excavations on this planet?"

Miranda shook her head "No, we're outside Citadel space. Liara only heard about it through some of Kasumi's contacts. Why…?" she suddenly realized what he was implying "And because this isn't in Council space, they never had to follow containment protocol for-"

"-Reaper artifacts." John finished, gesturing to the salarian "Our friend here was indoctrinated."

…

Garrus and Carn were about halfway through sweeping their floor when John spoke over the com **"Everyone, we've got a problem."**

"**Did you find out where everybody went?" **Jack asked **"Because this place is starting to creep the fuck out of me."**

"**Yeah… yeah I think we have…"** John sounded disturbed.

"**John," **this time it was Ashley who spoke over the com **"What's the matter?"**

"**Miranda and I think they were indoctrinated."**

There was a long, heavy, silence before Vega spoke up **"Is… is that even still possible? I thought that the Big Daddy Reaper like, deactivated all Reaper stuff."**

"**That is not entirely accurate Mr. Vega."** EDI corrected **"The Catalyst only deactivated any harmful Reaper technology, other technologies, such as the Citadel, and the Mass Relays, were left active, and there is no evidence to suggest the just because Reaper technology is deactivated that its indoctrination abilities are also deactivated."**

"**Like the Derelict Reaper." **Tali added.

"**Right, so be on the lookout." **Miranda said **"We don't want to be taken by surprise here."**

One, by one, each pair acknowledged the warning and Jacob and Grunt confirmed that they were moving to their next assigned floor. Garrus and Carn continued their sweep, now doubly cautious when they entered each new room. Finally, after several long, uneventful minutes, they opened the door to the last building.

Inside, the room was dark, but Garrus could just barely make out a small form huddled in the far back corner. "Hello?" Carn called, stepping into the room. "Who's there?"

"Are you sure that's a good idea?" Garrus asked "They're probably indoctrinated."

Carn smiled and raised his rifle "I know, but just in case," he stepped further into the room, Garrus following him. Slowly, they approached the huddled form, weapons at the ready. As they got closer, Garrus could tell that it was an asari- not Viara, her skin was a different shade- and that she wasn't doing anything, not crying, nothing, she was just huddled there, like she was waiting for them.

"Miss?" Garrus said softly, leaning down "Are you alright?"

The asari looked into his eyes and Garrus recoiled, there was something off with her eyes, something… wrong. Before Garrus could react, the asari shrieked and jumped at him, screeching. Garrus rolled to the side, avoiding the mad asari. Out of the corner of his eye, Garrus saw Carn train his rifle on the asari, but before he could get a shot off, the asari unleashed a biotic blast that sent him flying. Garrus brought his rifle to bear and fired. The asari, stumbled back, shrieked at Garrus, then without warning, she biotically Charged forward, slamming Garrus into the wall and knocking his gun away.

The asari grabbed him by the throat and started to squeeze, her eyes wild as she screeched "_Redeemer, Redeemer, Save us from Sin! Take up y-_" the asari's mad ravings were cut short when Garrus headbutted her. The asari released him and stumbled back clutching her head. She looked up and opened her mouth to let loose another terrifying scream when the side of her head exploded.

Garrus turned to see Carn standing there, his gun pointed at the asari's corpse. "What did I tell you?" Garrus said, picking up his rifle "Next time, we shoot first."

"You're the one who got too close." Carn pointed out.

Garrus sighed and activated his com "John, me and Carn are done with this floor. We ran into an indoctrinated asari, not Viara, but be on the lookout."

"**Acknowledged, the others have encountered more indoctrinated further down." **John responded, **"That probably means that the further down we go, the more indoctrinated we'll see."**

Carn sighed "How much you want to bet that Viara's going to be at the bottom floor?"

"**Without a doubt,"** John said wryly **"But we should check all the floors just in case."**

"Understood," Garrus said, heading back the way they'd come.

The next several hours consisted of long, monotonous process of searching every nook and cranny on every floor. According to what EDI and Liara could dig up, the excavation site had a dozen floors, with the bottom being the largest. Just like John had predicted, the further and further down they went, the more and more indoctrinated they encountered. Being the last three groups, Garrus and Carn, Ashley and EDI, and Miranda and John all took the bottom, splitting it up between them.

John and Miranda moved quickly between the buildings, oddly enough encountering no one. They could hear the sound of gunfire in the distance, so they knew that the other groups had run into indoctrinated, but so far they had yet to see any. Finally, they reached the center of the site, a large open space with dozens of boxes and excavation equipment scattered about, and in the center was…

"It's a box." John said, disbelief in his voice as they came within sight of the strange cube.

"It doesn't look like any Reaper tech I've seen." Miranda noted.

John nodded and slowly approached the cube. It was about the size of a standard storage crate, but that's where the similarities ended. Strange, intricate, glowing lines danced along the cube's black surface in mysterious patterns. John felt something from it that made his hairs stand on end; a sort of deep hum that rumbled through the ground and into him, burying itself deep into his very soul. He found himself in an almost trance-like state as he walked toward the alien device.

When he was still a dozen meters from the cube, John heard something that broke his trance. Snapping his head to the source, John saw an asari wearing black armor running into the clearing from the opposite side, firing blindly behind her with a submachine-gun John didn't recognize. Even from this distance, John recognized her from the pictures Liara had given him: it was Viara.

John brought his rifle to bear on the asari "Don't move!" he shouted.

Viara skidded to a halt and looked in John's direction, her eyes going wide when she saw him and Miranda. "Shit!"

Faster than John had anticipated, Viara ducked behind a crate, unleashing a barrage with her SMG. John managed to get a few shots off before he had to get behind cover himself. Viara, ceased firing for a second and John took the opportunity to pop out of cover, intending to lay down some suppressing fire while Miranda moved in range. He didn't get a chance. Viara threw three metal spheres, arcing them so that they landed in front of the cube. The spheres stopped several feet off the ground, and John's eyes widened as miniature gun barrels flipped out.

"Sentries!" he managed to shout out a warning before the air was ripped apart with hundreds of rounds and he had to duck back behind the crate.

Over the sound of the torrent, John heard Miranda cry out in pain. His eyes going wide, and his heart pounding in his chest, John rushed to Miranda's position as fast as he could, staying in cover as much as possible. After what felt like an eternity of weaving in and out of fire and praying to the heavens that his barriers would hold, John managed to reach Miranda. She was crouched behind a large piece of excavation equipment, clutching her side with one hand while holding her pistol ready in the other.

John crouched down next to Miranda "Are you alright?" he asked, his heart beating even faster at the sight of the growing red stain beneath her hand.

"I'm fine Commander," Miranda said, wincing a little. "I just got clipped is all."

John lifted her hand away from the wound, causing Miranda to hiss in pain. "That is _not_ just a clip." He said, applying medi-gel to the wound while activating his com "Garrus, Ashley, we found Viara and Miranda's been hit."

"**Understood"** Garrus acknowledged **"We're moving to your position."**

"**Same here."** Ashley said **"Hang in there, John."**

John nodded and risked poking his head out for a second. Viara had made it to the cube and seemed to be removing something from it while her sentries kept up the relentless assault. "John," he turned back to Miranda to see her giving him a determined look. "You need to go after her."

John shook his head "Viara's trapped down here, we'll get her eventually, I'm not leaving you in this condition."

"I'll be fine," Miranda insisted "Nothing major was hit and the medi-gel will keep the bleeding down until help arrives. You _need_ to get to Viara."

John considered what Miranda had said before making his decision. Giving Miranda a small smile, John charged back into the carnage. His barriers were depleted fast under the heavy fire, and he frequently had to duck behind cover to allow them to recharge. He saw that Viara was getting further and further away and swore. He needed to move faster. Diving back into the maelstrom, John didn't even register how heavily he was breathing or how fast his heart was beating. His barriers depleted themselves quickly and John once again had to take shelter. As he crouched behind the crate, John found his chest tight, and started having trouble breathing.

Then, without warning, his heart stopped.

John's eyes widened and he clutched at his chest. His breathing was frantic and laborious, as his body cried for the flow of oxygen. Darkness crowded the edges of his vision, and the last thing he heard before he toppled forward into oblivion was Ashley screaming his name…


	7. Here for You Part 1

**A/N: Sorry I took so long, schoolwork was starting to pile on. This chapter was surprisingly hard to write and I'm still not entirely satisfied with it. I also have rediscovered my fondness for "Danny Phantom" and I've been distracted by reading some of the fanfictions over there. I may be doing a fic in that universe once I've finished with this series, instead of working on one of my incomplete works like I'd originally planned (Provided I don't get inspired by something else in the time between now and when I finish the sequel to "Taken" ). **

**I hope you all have a wonderful Holidays!**

7: Here for You Part 1

Aniri Viara raced through the bottom level of the dig site, trying to find her way back to the stairs while avoiding the insane scientists and whoever else Commander Shepard brought with him. She risked a glance over her shoulder. Shepard wasn't behind her; her turrets must be doing their jobs. She slowed to a jog and looked down at the small cube in her hand. Like its larger counterpart back in the clearing, the cube had intricate glowing lines dancing along its surface. Unlike the larger cube however, this cube was transparent, with a single ball of light visible in its center. _So much trouble for such a small thing_. As soon as the scientists here had unlocked the large cube, they had all gone insane. The only reason Viara had kept her sanity was because she hadn't been here as long as the others. _I have no idea why the boss wants this thing, but I better be getting paid extra for this._

"Stop!"

Viara froze in her tracks at the turian's order. _Damn it._ "Alright," she said, holding up her hands "don't shoot; I'm just going to slowly turn-"

Without any warning, she spun around, bringing her SMG to bear on the turian. There was a loud bang and Viara cried out as her gun was blown from her hand. Staggering back, Viara held the wounded hand close to her side, glaring at the turian. She raised the cube high above her head "Stay back! I'll break it! I will!"

Garrus cocked a brow-plate but kept his rifle trained on the asari as she continued. "I mean it!" she insisted "I will-"

_BANG!_

Viara cried out as the cube was blown apart by the shot. Garrus immediately closed the distance between them and roughly grabbed Viara by the throat, slamming her against the nearest wall. He gave Carn, who had appeared behind him and shot the cube out of Viara's hands with his pistol, a grateful nod before turning back to Viara, snarling angrily. "Where is Alice?" when Viara didn't answer, Garrus started to crush her throat. "WHERE?!"

Viara paled and her eyes widened. Garrus could hear her making some sort of choking noise that sounded like she was trying to talk. He loosened his grip on her neck a little to allow her to speak. "I'll… I'll tell you everything!" she managed to choke out. "Just don't kill me!"

_That was easy_. Garrus noted as he released Viara's neck. The asari fell to her knees, clutching her throat and coughing. "Where is she?" Carn asked calmly, coming up behind him.

Viara looked at Carn "On a small isolated station in the Omega Nebula, I'll give you the coordinates."

Garrus pondered this, something didn't add up. "You're keeping something back."

Viara shook her head "I'm only in it for the money. I'm not going to die for those people, especially not after they sent me here."

"I presume you were sent to retrieve that?" Carn asked, pointing to the remains of the cube.

Viara nodded "Yeah," she glared at Carn "Thanks _oh so much_ for shooting it by the way, now they're going to kill me for my failure."

"Not if we kill them first," Carn said, kneeling down so that he was eye level with the asari.

Viara sighed "You have no idea who you're dealing with do you? This isn't some random group of pirates you're dealing with; they're more powerful than you could possibly imagine. They will crush you beneath their heel."

Garrus snorted "The Reapers thought the same thing."

Viara glanced at Garrus as she got to her feet "It's your funeral." She activated her omni-tool "Here are the coordinates I was told to return to with the relic, they should still be there with your wife."

She was starting to walk away when Garrus grabbed her arm "Where do you think you're going?" he growled.

Viara's eyes widened "You said you'd let me go if I told you where to find them!"

Garrus' mandibles flared in a vicious smile "I don't recall _saying_ anything."

Much to Garrus' amusement, Viara immediately became frantic. "What?! But I cooperated! I helped you!"

"And you could still go and warn them that we're coming." Garrus grabbed Viara by the throat and lifted her up in the air. "I can't take that chance."

"Please-" Viara's begging was cut short as Garrus started to squeeze the life out of her once more. He relished at the fear in her eyes as she struggled in vain. He watched with glee as her struggles grew weaker and weaker as she faded into darkness. Then, just when Viara's eyes started to roll back into her head, a Carn's voice cut through the rage.

"Garrus,"

Turning to look at Carn, Garrus was immediately struck by how similar he and Alice looked. His short, fuzzy hair was a dark grey, his eyes were a dark brown, and his skin was several shades darker than hers, but the way he looked at Garrus, not in the disapproving or condemning way his own father had once looked at him, but like he was just sad, screamed of Alice.

Garrus immediately released Viara, and the asari fell to the ground in a crumpled heap, unconscious. Garrus looked down at Viara, too ashamed to meet Carn's gaze "Thank you."

"For what?"

"Alice wouldn't want me to… she wouldn't want me to be consumed by revenge." Garrus looked at Carn "Thank you, for… stopping me…"

Carn grinned at Garrus "I didn't do anything." He nodded to Viara's unconscious form. "But you were right about her, she could tell them we're on our way. We should lock her up on the Normandy and turn her over to the authorities once we have Alice back."

Garrus nodded in agreement and gestured to the fragments of the relic "What about that thing?"

Carn shrugged as Garrus picked up Viara and slung her over his shoulder "The Council will send someone to sweep this place clean, let them deal with it." He activated his com "John we have Viara." He waited for a response, when none came, he contacted them again "John, do you read?" There was still no answer "Miranda? Ashley? EDI? Can anyone hear me?"

The next few seconds seemed to last an eternity. Finally, Miranda's voice came over the com. **"You need to get back here."**

Garrus' heart was immediately gripped by fear "What's wrong?"

"**It's John… he's…"** Carn was off before Miranda could finish her sentence, Garrus hot on his heels.

…

"JOHN!"

Ashley and EDI had just arrived at the excavation site just in time for Ashley to watch in horror as her husband collapsed in the middle of a battlefield. Without a single thought of her own safety, Ashley ran into the turmoil, the sentries now turning to fire on her. She felt her shields flicker from the impact of the rounds but didn't care; she had to get to John, no matter what.

"Ashley, GET DOWN!" Without warning, Ashley was caught in a biotic field and shoved behind a crate just as her shields fell. She barely caught a glimpse of Miranda as she ducked back behind a large piece of construction equipment.

Ash started to move from behind the crate but before she could the space where she was about to move to was ripped apart by rounds from the sentries. Swearing violently, Ashley shouted "EDI, TAKE CARE OF THESE DAMN SENTRIES!"

There was no sign of acknowledgement from the AI, just a blur that shot past Ashley. _What is she doing? She'll get ripped to shred-_ Realization dawned on Ashley as she saw "EDI" flicker when the sentries' rounds passed through her. _Decoy_. A few seconds later, the sentries stopped firing, Cautiously; Ashley peaked out from behind the crate and saw EDI calmly striding past the three deactivated sentries. Giving her a grateful nod, Ashley immediately bolted to where John lay, not moving. She scanned him with her omni-tool as she knelt by his side and immediately felt her blood go cold. His heart had stopped beating.

She immediately rolled him onto his back, her own heart madly pounding in her chest. She checked his breathing: nothing. Moving as fast as she could, Ashley started to unbuckle the clasps of John's chest plate. His armor's internal defibrillator should have already tried to jump-start his heart. _If that hadn't worked then… I perform CPR for five cycles before using it again right? Wait, John had his armor's defibrillator removed because he was afraid it might "shock him when his armor is stressed during combat". Damn it, I knew I should have made him put it back in._

She managed to get his armor off and started doing compressions just as Miranda joined her, supported by EDI. They didn't say anything as Ashley applied CPR on John, and she didn't know whether or not she should be grateful for it. Her body seemed to disconnect itself from her mind, performing the steps almost mechanically whilst her thoughts raced frantically. _You can't die, you can't, not again! I won't let you! _Tears started to form in the corners of her eyes as John continued to not respond to the CPR. _Don't leave us! Don't leave Lily! You know how much she looks up to you! Don't put her through this!_ Ashley was dimly aware of Miranda talking to someone over the com, but she didn't care to listen, all that mattered right now was saving John.

She had no idea how long she was performing CPR; she did know that Carn and Garrus arrived after a while. Carn immediately rushed to John's side, offering to take over for her. Ashley didn't even reply, she just kept on doing the compressions. Time seemed to slip away, everything was gone except for her and John. _If you die on me, I'll… I'll… God, please, oh God please don't let him die, not now, not like this… there so many things he still has to do. Who else will keep the salarians and the krogan from going to all-out war with each other? And what about Lily? She's too young to lose her father! Who's going to scare away all her boyfriends? Who's going to comfort her when she first gets her heart broken? I can't take care of her all by myself! She NEEDS John! I'll do anything! Take me! Take me inste-_

"Ashley…" Ash jumped when the comforting hand was placed on her shoulder, startling her out of the trance. She turned to see Doctor Chakwas smiling sadly at her. Odd, Ash hadn't even realized it when she'd arrived. "The other teams went back to the ship and got me once they heard what happened." Chakwas said at her puzzled look. "You've done all you can."

Ashley shook her head, sending the tears she hadn't even known she was crying sailing through the air and slashing to the ground like rain drops. Chakwas sighed "You've done enough, now let me do my job." Reluctantly, Ash moved from John's side to allow Chakwas to get to work. "Thank you. Tali, take her back to the ship. Carn, Grunt, help me with him."

Ashley looked around and noticed that Miranda, EDI, and Garrus had all left most likely heading back to the Normandy. She also noticed that Grunt and Tali had arrived with Chakwas. "Come on Ashley," Tali said in her soothing voice as she led the distraught woman away from her husband. "Let's get you cleaned up."

Ashley reluctantly complied, risking one last glance behind her to see Carn and Grunt lifting John onto a stretcher while Chakwas sadly shook her head.

…

_John sat at the bar, not entirely sure how he got there. Distantly, he thought he could hear waves lapping on the sea shore. The air tasted clean, pure, with a hint of salt that seemed to invigorate him. He looked around, there was no one else at the bar, he was all alone. Sighing, John got to his feet and moved behind the counter; might as well have a drink while he waited. He frowned for a moment. What was he waiting for? How did he even know he was waiting in the first place?_

"_Shepard-Commander."_

_John spun around, a bottle of beer raised in his hand like a bat. He let out a sigh of relief when he saw the all-too-familiar geth platform with a hole in his chest wearing a piece of N7 armor. "Legion," John breathed "You scared me." He sat back down at the bar "What are you doing here? Hell, for that matter, where is 'here' anyways?" somewhere in the back of his mind, something was nagging at John, telling him that something wasn't right, that he shouldn't be able to talk to Legion right now._

"_Shepard-Commander should already know the answer to his query."_

_John thought for a moment, then it all came back to him in a crashing wave. "You're dead…" he whispered in horror "That means that I'm…"_

"_No." John gave Legion a confused look "You are merely deactivated."_

_John cocked an eyebrow "Um… organics don't exactly 'deactivate' Legion."_

"_You are not completely organic." Legion pointed out._

_John's brow furrowed "So… what? You're saying that my cybernetics just 'shut off'?"_

"_Not entirely," Legion's eye-flaps shifted and his light focused "You're cybernetics sustained severe damage when the Catalyst deactivated you. They may have recovered to a degree but they will not be able to sustain the amount of stress that you had once put on them."_

_John just frowned "I don't understand, what happened?"_

"_These past few days have already put constant pressure on their systems, the high stress of combat was merely –to use a human expression- 'the straw that broke the camel's back'. They shut down in order to repair themselves. Unfortunately, your body requires that many of these systems be active in order to perform many of the necessary functions." _

"_Like my heart beating." John finished, things suddenly starting to make sense "But, you said I'm not dead… how?"_

"_Timely intervention on part of Williams-Lieutenant and Chakwas-Doctor." Legion stated "They successfully performed the necessary functions that kept your heart beating. Your cybernetics will have most likely finished the repair when you regain consciousness."_

_John frowned, something was still bothering him "If I'm not dead then why am I here?"_

_Legion tilted his head to the side, almost like he was listening to someone. Finally, he responded "I have been asked to give you a warning."_

_John's eyes narrowed "Warning? What warning?"_

"_This is only the beginning," Legion said ominously "Do not let down your guard Shepard, this foe is more dangerous then you realize."_

_John cocked an eyebrow "Real helpful there Legion, dying certainly helped you become more cryptic." _

_Legion's eye-flaps shifted and his head tilted into his "confused look". "I do not understand, we were merely delivering the message word-for-word."_

_John sighed "I don't suppose you'd be willing to tell me who gave you the message?"_

"_I'm sorry Shepard-Commander, we cannot."_

_John nodded; he hadn't really expected Legion to tell him. "So how do I get out of here?" As soon as the words left his mouth, he faintly heard something in the distance. "Legion, what is that?"_

_Legion once more gave John his "confused look" "What is what Shepard-Commander?"_

"_That… singing," John said "Don't you here it?"_

_Before Legion could respond, a blinding light appeared behind him. John had to shield his eyes as the singing grew louder and with it, the light shined brighter and brighter until he was completely engulfed in the brilliant glow…_

…

Ashley sat by John's bedside in the medbay. Chakwas had explained to her what had happened with John's cybernetics and how John needed them to keep his heart beating. Thankfully, Ashley's CPR had gotten the blood flowing again and kept John alive until Chakwas had arrived to put him on life support. With EDI and Miranda's help, Chakwas had managed to get his cybernetics working again and soon could take him off life support, saying that he should wake up within the next hour.

That had been four hours ago.

Ashley looked down at where she had taken one of John's hands in hers. Chakwas had no idea why John remained comatose, but Miranda suspected that his cybernetics were still making repairs. Regardless, John had yet to stir, and Ashley was growing more and more worried by the second.

"John?" Ashley gently squeezed his hand as she spoke. She knew it was silly, expecting him to wake up at the sound of her voice, but she didn't have anything to lose by trying. "John can you hear me?" Of course he didn't respond, but Ashley was nothing if not stubborn. "I know you're in there. Just give me a sign." Still, there was nothing. Ashley sighed, she was getting nowhere with this, but she didn't have a better idea. "You know, you really need to stop doing this." she joked half-heartedly, John still refused to respond.

Ashley was tempted to see if kissing him would work. And if that didn't do it, she was tempted to give him a good smack. I might not wake him up, but at least she'd feel better. Instead, she leaned down so that her lips were right next to his ear. She remembered when her father had been dying, her mother had sung to him at his bed. She searched her memory for the song, and taking a deep breath, started to sing.

"_Cover my ears,_

_Cover my eyes,_

_Tell me these words are a lie…_

_It can't be true, _

_That I'm losing you,_

_The sun cannot fall from the sky…"_

A spark of hope lit in Ashley's heart when she saw John twitch. With renewed vigor, she continued.

"_Can you hear heaven cry,_

_Tears of an angel…_

_Tears of an angel…_

_Tears of an angel…_

_Tears of an angel…"_

She wasn't imagining it, John definitely moved that time.

"_So hold on,_

_Be strong,_

_Every day, on we'll go…_

_I'm here, don't you f-fear,_

Ashley's voice cracked as tears started to appear in the corners of her eyes. "S-So please John…" her voice regained strength as she finished the line. _"Don't let GO…"_

Ashley felt a smile grace her lips as John's eyes started fluttering and continued.

"_Open your ears"_

"_Open your eyes,_

_Show me these words are a lie…"_

As Ashley finished the song, John finally woke up.

Blinking at the light of the medbay, John squinted at Ash. "Were you just… singing to me? Do you have any idea how cheesy that is?"

Ashley grinned and squeezed his hand "Be thankful I didn't slap you."

John chuckled lightly and slowly sat up. Chakwas, who had most likely been alerted to John's waking by EDI, choose that moment to enter the medbay. "I would not recommend that Commander," she scolded as John tried to stand up.

John rolled his eyes and ignored the doctor, continuing to stand. As soon as his he tried to support his own weight however, he collapsed.

Ashley quickly caught him before he could hit the ground "Now that you can see that Chakwas is right, maybe you should get back in the bed and rest up."

John however, looked confused "What…? But Legion said my cybernetics would be healed… what's going on?"

Ashley and Chakwas gave John a concerned look "Legion? What are you talking about?"

John looked Ashley in the eyes for a moment "I… nothing, I must have been hallucinating."

Chakwas frowned "But you _know_ what happened to you?"

John hesitated before replying "I… no. Fill me in."

While Ash helped John back into the bed, Chakwas told him everything about how his cybernetics had failed under the stress of combat and that it had been thanks to Ashley's CPR that his heart started again. During this, Ashley carefully studied John's reaction, or rather, _lack_ of a reaction. _He already knew._ Ashley realized.

It was when Chakwas started to explain why his legs weren't working that John did react. "Miranda, EDI, and I had to reconfigure the power distribution of your cybernetics, we had to prioritize your vital organs, but to do that we needed to get the power from some of the other cybernetics in your body. Eventually, we choose your legs, seeing as you had the strongest muscles there, we thought you would have the best chance at regaining mobility."

John's expression upon hearing this broke Ashley's heart, it was… defeated. "So… you're saying I can't walk?"

Chakwas nodded "At least for a little while, I'm sure that with physical therapy you'll regain most of your former mobility, though you will never be able to go into combat again, we don't want a repeat of this."

John looked like he'd been struck "I won't be able to fight ever again?"

Chakwas nodded "I'm afraid so Commander."

John just looked down at his legs, like they had betrayed him. Finally after a painful minute of silence, he spoke "Did we get Viara?"

Ashley nodded "Garrus and your dad caught her; she gave them the coordinates for a space station where Alice is being held. We're on our way there now. Garrus and Carn will handle the mission"

John raised his eyes to meet Ashley's, determination shining in them. "I need to be on that mission."

"Absolutely not." Chakwas said sharply. "Your cybernetics would not survive the experience. You'd just end up getting yourself killed."

"I can't just sit here!" John protested. "Alice is my sister, I need to help!"

"John, you can't even stand!" Ashley pointed out. "Please, sit this one out."

"No."

Ashley's eyes widened and she spun around to face the person who'd spoken. There, standing in the door to the medbay, was Carn. "You won't be able to stop him." he stated "You both know he's too damn stubborn."

John grinned gratefully at his father "Another trait I get from mom's side of the family?"

Carn smiled whimsically "No, I'm afraid I'm to blame this time."

"Need I point out that he _can't walk_?" Chakwas snapped "And he won't be able to by the time we get there."

Carn shrugged "My T5-V armor has an exo-suit built into it. It's normally used to enhance my strength, but we can modify it to tap into John's nervous system and act as a sort of crutch."

Ashley cocked an eyebrow "Is that possible?"

Carn nodded "I already discussed it with EDI. If we do it right, John's muscles won't actually be doing any of the work. It'll all be done by the suit."

John cocked an eyebrow at his father "If I'm wearing your armor, than what will you wear?"

Carn smiled "We're about the same size, I should be able to fit into your armor just fine if that's alright with you."

John nodded and gave Ashley a hopeful look "Please Ash? I need to be there."

Ashley squeezed John's hand "You're not going to give up on this are you?"

John shook his head "Nope."

Ashley sighed "Alright, but I'm staying by you the whole time."

John grinned at Ashley, his eyes locking with hers. "I wouldn't have it any other way."

Ashley smiled and started to lean forward to kiss John when a groan from Carn caused her head to snap back to her father-in-law. "And I thought _my_ marriage was torn from a romance novel."

…

They were nearing the coordinates Viara had given them, maybe an hour away at the most. Garrus anxiously paced the shuttle bay, impatient to get moving. Near the shuttle, Vega was chatting up Tali, Grunt, and Cortez. Garrus felt a sharp pain lance through his heart as he saw the way Vega seemed to stand a little too close to Tali, suddenly reminded of the early days of his relationship with Alice. Not that he suspected Tali reciprocated Vega's slight attraction, being a single mother and the head ambassador for the quarian people didn't really offer much time for dating. Still, Garrus knew Tali'd been hurting since Kal's death in the Reaper War. She deserved some happiness. He turned his attention toward the armory where Carn and EDI were helping John into the T5-V armor. They were hooking him up to the armor's exo-suit rather extensively. Garrus winced a little as EDI inserted a series of needles into John's spine at varying points.

John seemed to be more than a little uncomfortable as the armor was fitted onto him. "Are you sure this will wor- Aaagh!" John cried out as EDI inserted a needle into the base of his skull "Careful EDI! You don't want to give me brain damage do you?"

EDI didn't respond and continued encasing John in the armor. His legs had already been completely hooked up to the exo-suit, allowing him to stand. Finally, Carn placed the final piece of armor on his son: the helmet, slipping it onto his head. Garrus watched as Carn stepped back, admiring his work "Everything fitting?"

John nodded "Yeah… but do I really need the helmet? It's kind of uncomfortable."

Garrus rolled his eyes. John normally wore a sentry interface instead of a helmet, because he hated how it "made him feel trapped". Carn shook his head "I'm afraid so John, the armor is meant to function as a complete set. You need it for the exo-suit to access your motor functions. Try taking a step forward."

Garrus cocked a brow-plate as John slowly, almost clumsily, lifted his foot up and brought it down in front of him. He staggered a few more steps, his arms flung out to the sides as he tried to keep his balance. "This is _really_ weird."

"It will take some time for you to adjust to the fact that your muscles are no longer what's holding your mass up." EDI stated "Hopefully you will manage to do so by the time we arrive."

Garrus watched as Ashley, who had been watching by the elevator this whole time, walked to her husband's side. "You can still stay back John, we won't think badly of you."

Over by the shuttle, Grunt snorted "Speak for yourself! My Battlemaster is too damn tough to sit back just because he's having a little trouble walking!"

Garrus chuckled when Ashley shot Grunt her patented "Williams' Glare", causing the krogan to shut his trap. Clearly, Wrex had warned Grunt about the second human Spectre's temper. "Don't listen to him John, you've done enough, you don't need to prove anything to us."

John shook his head "I'm not backing down Ash," Garrus could hear the grin in his voice as he said "I'm too damn hard-headed."

"Literally in fact." EDI chimed in "When you were reconstructed, Commander, the Illusive Man made sure that your skull was reinforced, along with the rest of your skeleton."

Garrus chuckled, no wonder John could headbutt a krogan and not even flinch.

Garrus thoughts drifted to the impending mission. A few probes had been sent towards the station, reporting what they'd found. The station was small, about half the size of the average fuel depot. The only way onboard was a small hanger; there were no airlocks for the Normandy to dock at. That's why they were in the shuttle bay. Cortez would fly Garrus, John, Ashley, Carn, EDI, Tali, Grunt, and Vega over to the hanger in the Kodiak. It would be a tight fit, getting eight people, not including Cortez, into the Kodiak, but they weren't taking any chances. If they needed to split up, better that they go in a large group. He turned his attention back to John, Ashley, and Carn. While John continued to adjust to the T5-V, Ashley and Carn were both equipping their armor. One way or another, this would all be over in a few hours. His heart clenched as he thought of what state Alice might be in when they found her.

_If they've hurt her…_ he couldn't complete the thought. Instead he took out his Black Widow and checked it for the tenth time, looking forward to when he could use it on the people who'd taken his wife from him.

_I'm on my way Alice._

…

The dig site on Nero was deserted; the Normandy and her crew having flown off hours ago, and the vessel the Council had sent to clean up the mess having yet to arrive. So it was that there was nobody to see the small transport descend from the stars and land next to the entrance of the dig site. The transport was sleek, vaguely asari in design, but with a touch of turian influence.

The transport's gangplank lowered and a slim salarian (well, ALL salarians are slim) wearing black armor, his face concealed beneath a dark helmet, disembarked. The salarian calmly made his way into the dig site, like he had all the time in the world. For almost three hours, he remained down there. Nothing stirred on the surface as the desert seemed to hold its breath and wait for the salarian to emerge. Then, finally, he emerged carrying the shattered pieces of the relic his cohort had failed to retrieve. The salarian headed back to his ship, and delicately, almost reverently place the fragments within a small glass case, suspended by mass effect fields so that they wouldn't be jostled around. The relic secured, the salarian returned to the transport's cockpit and activated the QEC device, putting him in direct contact with his superior.

A hologram of a turian materialized over the control panel **"Did you get it?"**

The salarian nodded "Yes, although it appears to have been damaged."

The turian considered this **"He won't be pleased"**

The salarian winced "I am aware of that. But some of the data appears to be intact; we should be able to recover enough to satisfy him."

The turian nodded **"And what of Viara, did you find her corpse?"**

The salarian shook his head "No, unfortunately."

"**So she's alive," **the turian seemed less than pleased by this. **"That will need to be corrected."**

The salarian nodded in agreement "Do you wish for me to return to the outpost?"

The turian shook his head **"No, Shepard and Vakarian will be here soon. Take it directly to the boss."**

The salarian nodded and started up the ship. "Understood," he said, cutting the transmission as he lifted the transport off the ground and shot out into the dark void between the stars.


	8. Here for You Part 2

**A/N: Crap, I forgot to put this at the end of the last chapter. The song Ashley sang was "Tears of an Angel" by RyanDan, slightly modified to fit my needs. I seriously recommend that you check it out; it is easily one of the most powerful songs I've ever heard, although it was knocked down from the number one spot by Anne Hathaway's "emotional throat punch" of a performance of "I Dreamed a Dream" (so many feels T_T …). **

**Also, regarding John's little "Limbo" experience and Legion's warning. Let me just say that I will never reveal who it was who gave Legion the message. I've never been a big fan of shoving my own beliefs down other people's throats so I will always leave the more spiritual aspect of my stories ambiguous. Now with the "prophecy" thing, have faith, all will be explained in due time.**

**And about what happened with John's cybernetics. I've had this planned from the beginning, and if you remember I even hinted at how badly his cybernetics were damaged in "The End of All Things". Now originally it was supposed to be a long, gradual process that I would hint at throughout "Guess Who I Brought Home!" and "Taken" before becoming a full-blown problem in the sequel, but I decided that this would have a much bigger impact and resolve Ash and John's fight without actually addressing the issues 'cause you will be seeing John go full Renegade again in the sequel, although you'll probably be cheering him on when you do (I know I was when I wrote the rough draft).**

**FYI: The last half of this chapter was a bitch to write. In case you guys haven't noticed, I suck at depicting prolonged gun battles, and while I'm trying to get better at it, I'm going to need feedback in order to improve.**

**One last thing: at the end of this chapter I'm sure many of you will want to start a riot. All I ask is that you be patient. **

**On that note, ON WITH THE SHOW!**

8: Here for You Part 2

Joker grinned as the nebulae thinned enough for him to see the space station Alice was being held at. "Commander, we're almost there." He said over the com.

"**Understood, Joker"** John replied **"We're all ready to go down here and are waiting for your signal."**

The standard cylindrical design with large modules attached to it, the station was nothing remarkable, something Joker was sure was intentional. However, the probes had detected several turrets situated along the exterior of the station, so Joker knew that he had to be cautious. The kidnappers may not know that they were coming, but even with the stealth drive active, all it took was one look out a window in their direction and they would be discovered. _Makes ya kinda wish more people followed the same line of thought as the geth doesn't it?_ Joker mused as he maneuvered the Normandy closer to the station. It appeared that nobody had spotted them yet, and Joker could now clearly see the station's hanger. He would bring the Normandy in close before giving the boarding party the signal. That way, if the turrets did turn to fire on them, the shuttle would be able to quickly get to the hanger without being blown to pieces.

He was so prepared for an attack from the front however, that he never anticipated the one that came from behind.

Without warning, the ship shook, alarms blaring across the controls. Joker instinctively sent the Normandy into a dive, just barely dodging the next shot from their unknown assailant. "EDI, what's going on?"

EDI's blue orb popped up next to him "It appears we are under attack."

"No _shit_!" Joker gritted his teeth as another attack struck their shields. "Where's it coming from? I'm not detecting anyone on the scanners."

EDI paused for a moment before replying. "Our assailants appear to have some sort of stealth technology, similar to that of the Normandy."

Joker frowned, did EDI sound… _surprised_? "Can you at least give me an approximation of where the shots are coming from?"

EDI's avatar blinked and Joker barely managed to maneuver the Normandy out of the path of the next attack. "Yes, they are using a form of laser weapon, similar to that of an Occulus; I can use the angle and direction of the beams to locate the ships."

"_Ships_?" Joker said in disbelief as he sent the Normandy into a spin, narrowly missing another beam fired at them. "There's _more than one_?!"

"Three, to be precise."

Joker swore angrily as the Normandy got struck by a glancing blow from another beam, shaking the ship. **"Joker, what's happening up there?"** John's voice crackled over the com.

"Sorry Commander, just entertaining some unexpected guests." Joker's fingers danced across the controls as he aimed the Normandy at the station once more. When they got close enough, the station's turrets turned towards them and immediately unleashed a salvo of Javelin missiles. Joker managed to evade most of the barrage but some missiles still got through. Another tremor rocked the Normandy as their shields were struck. "Get going," Joker said over the com "I'll try and distract them while you dock."

There was a confirmation from Cortez and a few seconds later, EDI chimed "The shuttle is away."

Joker grinned and pulled the Normandy into a sharp U-turn to confront the three mysterious ships chasing them. As the three attackers came into view, Joker's jaw dropped. "EDI…"

"Yes Jeff?"

"Is it just me, or do those ships look like smaller versions of the SR-1?" Joker said in disbelief as he ducked and weaved the Normandy in and around the beams from the faux-SR-1s and the Javelin missiles fired from the station.

"One moment, attempting to scan…" There was a brief pause before responding "Yes, they appear to be models of the new SR-3 line of _Normandy-Class_ ships the Alliance and Hierarchy have recently commissioned. I am unaware of how they managed to acquire them however."

Joker didn't bother replying, too busy avoiding fire. His hands were a blur, activating the weapons and returning fire. The trio of SR-3s managed to dodge the shots and continued their assault. The Normandy and the trio raced towards one another, exchanging fire as they grew closer and closer, like a giant, deadly game of Chicken, neither side willing to be the one to move out of the way. Joker gritted his teeth and, just when it looked like they would crash with the SR-3s, he ducked the ship down and cut the power to the engines, leaving the right two on slightly longer at max to send the Normandy into a fast 180 ̊ turn. The SR-3s shot overhead, unable to stop, and Joker grinned when he powered up the engines again, giving chase. He immediately locked onto one of the ships and fired the Thanix Cannon. The steam of molten metal flew true and struck its target before it had a chance to dodge, obliterating it.

Joker whooped in victory. "Eat it motherfucker!"

The remaining two SR-3s broke formation, heading off in different directions. Joker rolled his eyes. Their plan was obvious; get him to follow one of them and while he was chasing it the other one would come up from behind and attack. "So that's how you wanna play it." He grinned devilishly "Fine by me. Let's dance you sons-of-bitches."

…

The shuttle rocked violently as another Javelin missile almost struck them. In the cockpit, Garrus stood behind Cortez as the pilot weaved through the barrage, firing the shuttle's guns whenever a missile got too close. They getting closer to the station, and there was no doubt in Garrus' mind that they would have a welcome party waiting for them by now. He growled in frustration; the longer it took them to get there, the more time Alice's kidnappers had to prepare.

"Can't you get us there any faster?" Garrus said, agitated.

"You wanna fly?" Cortez snapped, his brow glistening with sweat "'Cause if you do be my guest! I'd love to see you try and dodge all these missiles." Garrus was about to retort when something on the station caught his eye.

The hanger doors were slowly shutting.

"Cortez…"

"I see it, I see it." The pilot seemed even more tense now, clearly trying to get to the hanger before the doors shut all the way as fast as he could.

The ship rocked again as Vega popped his head into the cockpit "Yo Esteban, everything alrig-" his eyes widened as he saw how the hanger doors had closed enough that the Kodiak almost couldn't fit through. "OH SHIT!"

Cortez ignored Vega as he put on one last burst of speed and, with a painful screeching sound as the metal of the Kodiak scraped against the hanger doors, squeezed the shuttle through and into the hanger. Cortez quickly slowed the Kodiak before they slammed against the far wall of the hanger, turning what could have been a deadly crash into a violent jolt that almost knocked the squad off their feet.

Breathing a huge sigh of relief, Cortez leaned back in his chair "Can I just say that I hate it when I have to do that."

"You and me both Esteban," Vega mumbled "You and me both."

Garrus left the cockpit to see the rest of the squad steadying themselves. He briefly turned his attention to John and noticed that he actually _had_ been knocked off his feet and was currently in the process of being helped up by Carn and Ashley. "Are you okay?" Carn asked.

"Fine." John said, though Garrus could hear him breathing heavily beneath the helmet. "It's a little claustrophobic in here is all."

Ashley put a hand on the side of the helmet and turned his head, her eyes meeting with his. Some form of silent communication passed between them, and John straightened, his breathing leveling out "Alright, let's find Alice and get out of here."

"Shepard, there is a problem." EDI spoke up.

"What's wrong?" Tali asked.

"I accessed the station's mainframe and managed to get a layout, but I was detected by the station's security and have been denied further access. If we are to leave with Alice, we will need to shut off the station's auto-turrets and open the hanger door from the control room."

"Is there any way you can regain access to the mainframe?" John asked.

"Perhaps, if I were to connect directly into the Main Hub I could interface directly with the mainframe and shut off the auto-turrets. It is located not far from where Alice is being kept." EDI paused before continuing "There is no guarantee that I will be able to open the hanger doors however."

John nodded "Alright, we'll split into two teams." He said, addressing all of them. "Grunt, Tali, and Vega will head to the control room while EDI, Ash, Garrus, my father, and I will stop by the Main Hub on our way to grab Alice." He turned to Tali, Vega, and Grunt "Make sure to stay in contact, EDI will provide you with a layout of the station." He looked over the assembled squad. "Let's bring Alice home."

Cortez opened the shuttle doors and they stepped out, guns at the ready. The hanger was eerily empty, a couple small transport ships the only other vehicles docked. There was only one exit, a door at the back that they quickly made their way over to. Carn and Vega took up positions at either side of the door, everyone else making sure to take cover.

Well, everyone except Grunt that is.

The adolescent krogan marched right up to the door and pressed the green interface to open it. As soon as he did so, the doors flung open and Grunt was immediately engulfed in a barrage of bullets. The perfect krogan stumbled back, raising a hand to shield his face, and let loose an angry snarl.

Raising his shotgun over his head, Grunt let out a tremendous roar. "I. Am. **KROGAAAAN**!"

With that he charged into the room beyond. Garrus heard a series of loud crashes and something that sounded suspiciously like a little girl's screams. After almost a minute of listening to smashing and painfully high-pitched shrieks, the hallway beyond the finally fell silent. Garrus risked a peek into the hallway and found Grunt standing in the midst of dead bodies and destroyed turrets, bleeding from multiple wounds, but grinning all the same.

John looked out from behind his cover and cocked an eyebrow "All of a sudden I'm glad I made him wear shields."

The others joined Garrus and John in the doorway, the only one who didn't look shocked at the carnage in front of them was EDI. Grunt grinned, "That was f-"

At that moment, alarms started blaring throughout the station, and a cool metallic voice spoke over the speakers **"Intruder alert! Intruder alert! All security personnel report to the hanger at once."**

Carn sighed "Well, if there was anyone left on this station who didn't know we're here, they do now."

"Move out," John said, readying his rifle "EDI, lead the way."

They took formation and started to move through the halls; Carn, Garrus, and EDI taking the front, Ashley and John in the middle, with Vega, Grunt, and Tali bringing up the rear. They encountered numerous guards and turrets, but they were always killed in a matter of seconds. With EDI guiding them, they eventually came across an intersection where they parted ways with Tali, Vega, and Grunt.

Once it was just them, Garrus picked up the pace, almost leaving Ashley and John behind in the dust. He was always the first to fire whenever guards appeared, often killing them all with smooth headshots before the others even got there. As they moved, Garrus noticed that most of the guards they encountered were a variety of species wearing a haphazard assortment of armor. _Clearly they're not very organized when it comes to supplying their troops._ Regardless, he would obliterate everyone in his path that kept him from Alice. Nothing would stop him now.

Finally, they reached the Main Hub. It was a large room; a pillar of machinery was at the center with countless wires and computer hubs branching from it. Making sure the coast was clear, Garrus motioned for EDI to do her job. The AI approached the pillar, streams of algorithms and code flowing across her visor. Garrus, Carn, and Ashley took up positions around the room to cover the exits while John stayed close to EDI.

"How's it coming?" John asked after half a minute of silence, his breath noticeably calmer.

"I am close to breaking down the firewalls surrounding the turret controls." EDI said "Unfortunately, I was correct in my prediction that the hanger door controls would be locked down, the second team will need to reach the control room and activate the manual override if we are to leave."

Garrus was growing impatient, "This is taking too long, we need to get Alice."

John nodded "Agreed. Garrus, you and my dad go grab Alice, me and Ash will join you once EDI's done.

"The door leading to where she is being kept is to your left." EDI stated.

Garrus nodded to Carn and quickly moved to the indicated door, entering the corridor beyond. They steadily walked down the stereotypically ominous long, dark, hallway, weapons ready for any attack that might come from the door at the end. As they reached the far side, EDI's voice crackled through the com. **"I have successfully disabled the turrets. I have also come across some interesting information."**

"Like what EDI?" Carn asked while Garrus hacked the locked door.

"**I have discovered some files that indicate why Alice was kidnapped in the first place. It appears they were performing some sort of operation on her."** Garrus' blood started to boil. _If they've hurt her…_ There was heavy silence as Garrus managed to open the door. The room beyond was some sort of lab, with beakers and medical equipment scattered throughout it. Garrus' eyes immediately fell on the figure lying on the operating table and his heart stopped. **"If… if my analysis is correct… then Alice is…"**

Carn finished for her, Garrus too shocked to speak as his eyes focused on the large mound of Alice's stomach, "Pregnant."

**A/N:** ***Takes cover* Explanations are coming pleasedonthurtme! **


	9. Carn

**A/N: Wow, I'm surprised more of you haven't just dropped this story. I know the whole human/turian hybrid thing isn't very popular, but I've had this planned ever since I started "One of Those Relationships". I knew going into this that it would be a risky move, but I'm not ashamed of sticking with it. So thank you to everyone who's decided to give this a chance, and I hope the conclusion to "Taken" won't disappoint.**

9: Carn

Garrus was (quite understandably) having a hard time trying to wrap his mind around what he was seeing as he looked down at Alice's unconscious form. Alice… _pregnant_?! What the hell? Distantly, he could hear Carn arguing with EDI; she, Ashley, and John having joined them. "How the hell is this possible?! Alice has only been missing a few days! How does she look nine months pregnant?"

"They used some kind of accelerant to speed up the pregnancy." EDI explained.

"Who's the father?" Garrus asked suddenly, causing all eyes to turn towards him.

"I assumed it was obvious." EDI said, frowning. "_You_ are."

The full impact of EDI's words hit him with the force of a freight train on rockets sent through a Mass Relay. Truthfully, it was a miracle he didn't faint right there. "Wha… how…?"

"I'm assuming that they artificially impregnated her with your sperm." EDI said matter-of-factly "Had you and Alice recently completed sexual intercourse before she was taken?"

Garrus blinked, a little overwhelmed by EDI's bluntness. "I… We…"

"I'll take that as a yes. Did you happen to use protection? If they did not have access to an immediate sample, it is possible that they extracted the sperm themselves while you were unconscious-"

"EDI!" John snapped, finally taking mercy on poor Garrus. "Speculate later, right now, we need to get Alice out of here."

EDI nodded "Of course Commander. My scans indicate that Alice is within the final stages of the pregnancy, I suggest we get her to the Normandy before she wakes u-" Of course, at that moment, Alice started to stir.

Garrus was immediately kneeling by her side, clasping her hand in his. "It's okay Alice, I'm here."

"Garrus, we need to get moving." Ashley said, "We've lollygagged here long enough."

Garrus nodded and lifted Alice up into his arms, mindful of her enlarged stomach. "Let's go."

"One moment," EDI stated "I am attempting to download the data on Alice's pregnancy." She frowned "That's odd…" Without warning, EDI's eyes flew wide open and her visor turned red. EDI spazed erratically for a moment before finally collapsing, her visor shutting off.

"EDI!" John and Ashley cried out while Carn rushed to her side.

"It appears the data was rigged with a virus." EDI stated, it was almost comical the way only her mouth moved "I am attempting to rid my processes of the corrupted data as we speak."

Carn lifted EDI up into his arms, handing her off to John. "Ashley and I will clear any enemies we encounter. Do you think you're able to carry EDI back to the shuttle?"

John nodded "Of course, let's move out."

They quickly headed back the way they'd come, John and Garrus carrying EDI and Alice respectively while Ashley and Carn covered them with their rifles, ready for any guards that might suddenly appear. Not that they needed to, the hallways were conspicuously deserted as they passed through them. Not a single soul was in sight.

"Something's up," Ashley said after a while, "Why haven't we been attacked yet?"

"They probably don't want to risk hurting Alice." Carn suggested "They must have put an awful lot of work in getting her pregnant."

"That's another thing that's been bothering me." Ashley said. "Why would they go to so much trouble just to get Alice pregnant? If they were really doing this out of the kindness of their hearts, why kidnap her? Why protect her so fiercely? And why _Alice_? If they just wanted to make a human/turian hybrid, couldn't they have just used volunteers? It doesn't make sense."

Garrus was hardly listening to Ashley and Carn; he was too absorbed in Alice to hear them. _You're safe, you're okay, thank the Spirits. I swear, I'll never let _anything_ happen to you ever again._ He looked down at the bump of Alice's stomach. _Both of you._

They continued to retrace their steps. Finally, they reached the crossroads where they had split from the second team, "They were supposed to meet us here. Where are they?" John said with a frown.

At that moment, their coms crackled to life, and Tali's frantic voice reached through it with the sounds of battle. **"We need reinforcements! In the hall leading to the control room! We're being overrun! Please, get here soo- oh Keelah! Vega-!"**

Their coms died, cutting off Tali's pleas. Garrus looked around at the other members of his group. John was frozen, Ashley had gone almost deathly pale, and Carn, oddly enough, just looked determined. "I guess that explains where all the guards went." Garrus said darkly.

Carn nodded in agreement, "They need help." He turned to John, and some silent communication passed between father and son.

"No" John said abruptly.

"It sounds to me like they won't be able to hold out much longer." Carn said "They need reinforcements. Besides, we can't leave until those hanger doors are opened."

"No" John said again, "You're not going alone, at least take Ashley with you."

Carn shook his head "You need her to watch your backs while you get Alice and EDI back to the shuttle. I'll be fine."

"You can't stand against all of them by yourself." John insisted.

Carn grinned "You're the one who used to call me 'Superman'."

"I was a kid! You're not invincible!" Garrus wasn't entirely sure, but it looked like John was trembling under his armor.

"No, I'm not" Carn admitted before cracking another grin "But I _am_ the father of 'Commander John Fucking Shepard'. That's got to count for something. Have a little faith in your old man, John."

After a tense silence, John released a heavy sigh and nodded "Alright, but don't do anything stupid."

Carn's eyes twinkled "Now where's the fun in that?" With those final words, Carn turned and dashed down the hallway that would take him to the control room.

Neither father nor son realized that this would be the last time they would see each other in this life.

…

Tali lifted her pistol up and fired blindly over the random crate she was lying behind. She cringed at the lance of pain that shot from the wound in her gut as the thermal clip was spent. Taking a moment to reload, Tali barely registered the boom of Grunt's shotgun over the sound of the turrets, signifying that the krogan was still fighting.

She looked at the slumped figure next to her "Hang in there Vega, we'll get through this."

The N7 marine tried to smile back at her, though it wound up looking more like a grimace. The multiple holes left by rounds that had pierced his chest armor had ceased bleeding thanks to the medi-gel, but he was going to need to get back to the Normandy if he had any chance of surviving. "'Course we will, I bet Loco will come around that corner any second now and kill all these _pendejo_ assholes."

Tali laughed despite herself. "I'm sure he will."

She was just about to lift her pistol to resume laying down covering fire when she saw something small and silver fly through the air towards the enemy. There was a loud explosion and suddenly the number of turrets firing seemed to decrease as a new gun joined the cacophony. Tali turned to see Carn standing at their end of the hallway, firing at the enemy with his Revenant in short, controlled bursts as he raced towards her and Vega.

"Grunt, fall back!" Carn shouted as he joined Tali and Vega behind the crate. Tali took a quick peek from behind cover to see the krogan reluctantly complying. She turned back to Carn when he addressed her and Vega. "How bad are your wounds?"

"Eh, I've had worse." Vega said with a chuckle that quickly became a cough. Tali's eyes widened beneath her visor as she saw the red spray fly from Vega's mouth.

Carn's brow furrowed "We need to get you back to the Normandy." He glanced at Tali and noted her stomach wound "_Both_ of you."

Tali didn't bother arguing. While she may not be as likely to die from an infection like she would have a few years ago, she still needed serious medical attention if she was to survive.

At that moment, Grunt joined them, sporting more wounds than Tali could count. "What?" he asked Carn gruffly, "I was just starting to have fun!" despite his bravado, Tali could hear the exhaustion in his voice; Grunt was tiring.

Carn must have heard it too because he immediately said "Grunt, grab Tali and James and get them back to the shuttle, I'll handle this."

Grunt snarled "Like hell! I'm not running away like a coward!"

Carn glared at Grunt "Your squadmates are critically injured, and you're not much better off. I'm fresh and have grenades. I'll handle this."

It was a testament to how tired he was that Grunt didn't argue further, he just huffed and lifted Vega and Tali up, slinging them over his shoulders (admittedly, not a very smart move when both were suffering from chest wounds, but beggars can't be choosers). With a nod to Carn, Grunt ran back down the hallway, leaving Carn to finish the mission.

…

_Alice heard voices whispering at the edge of the darkness, slowly getting louder. Just when the voices were loud enough for her to make out what they were saying, she was once again assailed by the images, the torrent drowning out the words… _

_She saw John, looking much older, standing in a familiar office on the Presidium, leaning on a cane while sitting behind the desk in front of him was Miranda, not having aged a day. _

_She saw Vega, looking almost twice his age and now sporting a cybernetic eye to go with his arm, cracking a grin at something she couldn't see._

_She saw Javik and a strange, bird-like creature running through a series of narrow halls. _

_She saw a red hologram of a human male, in his late teens at the most, smiling at an asari in pilot overalls who was scowling at him._

_She saw a young woman with shoulder length golden blond hair flashing a smirk as she drew a strange pistol from its holster. _

_She saw a world cracked open like an egg, its molten core laid bare for the entire galaxy to see._

_Finally, she saw a murky figure standing in the middle of a heavy fog, embers raining down around it like stars. She could barely make out its shape, but from what she could see, it looked like a turian… and yet… not… _

_Suddenly, an unimaginable pain shot through her, and she felt herself being lifted from the darkness. The fog parted, and the last thing she saw was a set of familiar blue eyes…_

Alice became aware that she was being carried in someone's arms. "John, I think she's waking up." A rough, yet oddly soothing voice said nearby. "Alice, are you okay?"

Forcing her eyes open, she was met with the wonderful sight of Garrus looking down at her in his arms, his face full of love and concern. Alice smiled, "Hey…" she said groggily.

Garrus' mandibles fluttered in that adorable smile of his "Hey," he said back to her. Alice realized that Garrus had slowed down from a run to a gentle walk when she'd regained consciousness. "How are you feeling?"

Before Alice could respond, a sharp pain shot through her, causing her to cringe. "I've been better. What- Ack! -happened?"

Garrus' expression grew even more worried at her pain. Instead of responding, Garrus looked up at someone she couldn't see and said, "We need to get her back to the Normandy! Now!"

"Why, what's wrong?" Alice heard John ask.

She heard Ashley snap "What do you _think_ is wrong?!"

John's voice was clearly panicked "_What_?! You mean she's going into labor _now_?! Seriously?! _Now_?!"

EDI choose that moment to chime in "Actually, it makes sense that-"

"Not now EDI."

Alice frowned at this, confused. Who were they talking about? At that moment another lance of pain surged through her, causing Alice to cry out. Garrus gave her a worried look. "Just keep breathing Alice, you understand? Just keep breathing."

Alice gave Garrus a confused look "What are you going on about?"

Garrus looked away "Um… well… you see… you're… pregnant."

Alice frowned, her muddled mind trying to grasp what Garrus had said. She winced when another surge of pain shot through her. She looked towards where the pain seemed to be originating near her groin… "WHAT THE FUCK DID YOU DO TO ME!" she shrieked.

"Alice, please calm down!" Garrus pleaded.

"DON'T YOU TELL ME TO CALM DOWN GARRUS AEITUS VAKARIAN JUNIOR!" Alice screamed "I get knocked out and wake up to find myself FUCKING _PREGNANT_! What the HELL did I miss?!"

"We'll explain everything to you once we're back on the ship, I promise." Garrus said, calming her down.

"Fine." Alice said with a glare at her husband, "But you better- Argh!" Alice cried out as what she realized was another contraction shot through her, this one more painful than all the others.

Garrus' eyes widened "Hang in there Alice, the shuttle's not far!" he immediately burst into a sprint, every bump engulfing Alice in a fresh wave of pain.

…

Dealing with the guards and turrets outside the control room was surprisingly easy. A few well-placed grenades, a couple of short bursts from his Revenant, and everything was taken care of. Unfortunately, he didn't count on reinforcements coming from behind him. So, Carn dashed into the control room under the barrage, managing to lock the doors behind him just as his shields failed. He scanned the control room, breathing a sigh of relief when he saw that it was empty. The room was like a blocky pentagon in shape, the door located at one of the points while various consoles lined the walls with security monitors located above each one.

He went to the console beneath the monitor that showed a view of the hanger. After checking to see that the shuttle was fine- and that thankfully, John, Ashley, EDI, Alice, and Garrus had made it safely to it, he accessed the console, finding the label for "Hanger Door Controls" and immediately setting them to open. Carn smiled to himself as the hanger doors opened on the screen, the atmosphere in the hanger still kept inside by mass effect fields.

Carn turned around; his job here was done. Time to join the- _BANG!_

Everything stopped. His shields hadn't recharged yet. Carn looked down at his chest, and the hole in his armor that was starting to leak blood. He looked up to see a turian in black armor with red highlights pointing a Paladin heavy pistol at him. His face was concealed beneath a black helmet, but Carn could have sworn he saw the turian smirk as he pulled the trigger… again… and again… and again…

Carn stumbled back with each shot that impacted his torso, until he was leaning on the console for support. He looked up, and tried to bring his Revenant to bare, only to drop it when the turian shot his arms. For a long time they stood facing one another, Carn holding himself up with the console and sheer willpower alone, and the turian regarding him blankly.

Some form of unspoken consent passed between them, and Carn shakily raised his hand to his ear, activating the com. "J-John?"

"**We're at the shuttle, Grunt, Tali, and James just arrived, we're just waiting on you."**

Carn took a deep breath "I'm… not coming."

"**What?" **The confusion in John's voice broke his heart **"What are you talking about? Of course you are!"**

Carn shook his head "John I… I'm wounded really badly… I'm not going to make it…"

"**D-Don't talk like that." **John said in disbelief. **"A-Ash, Grunt, and I will come get you. Don't worry." **At that moment, Alice's piercing scream came through the background, hardening Carn's resolve.

"There's no time," He said, his voice now steady "Your sister is the top priority. Finish the mission soldier."

"**Don't you start pulling that military talk on me!" **John said, trying to create some semblance of his "Commander" tone **"I leave NO ONE behind!"**

Carn sighed "John… I'll be dead before you even reach me." Of that, Carn had no doubt.

"**No…" **Carn could hear the tears in his son's voice now.

"Tell Alice and your mother that you three meant the world to me." Carn said, tears forming at the corners of his eyes. _Oh Hannah, how I wish I could see you again, one last time._

"**Dad…"**

"I was the proudest father in the universe the day you and your sister were born." Carn said "I always knew that you two would far outshine me and your mother." He winced at the pain a small chuckle caused him. "I just didn't realize by how much. I love you John, no matter what."

"**I-I love you too, Dad."**

With those final words between father and son, the com went dead.

…

John immediately turned to Cortez "Get us out of here."

The pilot gave him a confused look "What about Carn?"

John took a deep breath, steadying himself. "…he didn't make it…"

There was a moment of horrified silence before Alice spoke, her voice broken. "W-What…?"

John turned to his sister and from behind his visor saw tears leaking from the corners of her eyes. His heart melting into an abyss of grief, John knelt down next to where his sister was laying on the floor by Garrus' side and wrapped his arms around her. "I'm sorry Alice…"

As the shuttle lifted off, both brother and sister cried.

…

Carn turned his head to see the shuttle lift off. Breathing a sigh of relief, Carn's legs finally gave out and he collapsed, slumping against the console. "They've escaped." He looked back at the turian "You've lost."

For the first time, the turian spoke, his voice a harsh, grating sound. "Is that so?" he walked over to another console, chuckling darkly "Do you really think that I would have left you that trail if my orders weren't to _let _them escape?"

Carn's eyes widened "What are you saying."

The turian glanced back at him "I'm saying that we didn't lose, everything went according to plan." He paused for a moment "_Almost _everything. You were never supposed to die." Once again, Carn was sure that the turian was smiling "But I've lost too many people to not get any sort of compensation." The turian shrugged "Still, just because I was supposed to let them get away, doesn't mean I have to make it easy for them." He started typing at the console. "Hmm… let's see if we can't get the auto turrets back online."

Carn's eyes narrowed. _Not going to happen you son of a bitch!_ He slowly reached for the last remaining grenade. Carn fumbled for the detonator, and as soon as he found it he gave the turian one last look, closed his eyes and pushed the button.

_Laughter filled the small cabin as the two small children chased each other. "I'm gonna get you Alice!" John cried happily._

_Alice glance over her shoulder and shook her head, midnight black hair flying "Nuh uh!"_

_Watching the scene with amusement, Carn turned to his wife and smiled "Maybe a posting planet-side would be a good idea until they get out of the crazy stage."_

_Hannah chuckled and kissed her husband "Carn, they're _never_ going to get out of the crazy stage."_

As he was engulfed in the explosion, and sent up into the stars, Carn smiled.

…

Alice's screams filled the shuttle. Garrus gave Ashley, who was tending to James and Tali's wounds, a worried look "It's getting worse, what do we do?!"

EDI choose to answer for Ashley "We will need to commence with the birth."

John's eyes widened beneath his helmet "What?"

EDI nodded, having regained some of her mobility. "Yes, Ashley, you will to catch the baby when it comes, let John handle Tali and Vega's wounds."

"What? Why me?"

"Having given birth yourself, you are less likely to faint unlike John or Garrus."

"I resent that!" The two men in question said simultaneously.

"I am merely stating the facts."

Ashley sighed and knelt down between Alice's legs. "Holy shit she's almost fully dilated!"

"How do you know?"

"I'm guessing!"

Garrus looked back at Alice, squeezing her hand reassuringly as another contraction hit. "So," he said, trying to keep her mind off the pain "What do you think the kid will look like? More human or turian?"

Alice hesitated before answering "More turian."

Garrus chuckled "Want 'em to inherit my devilishly good looks huh?"

Alice smiled "Something like that." Distantly, they were aware of Cortez radioing the Normandy, but they didn't care. Right now, all that mattered was Garrus, Alice, and their soon-to-be-born child. "So?" Alice asked, wincing as another contraction hit "How many fingers?"

"Including the thumb? Four."

Alice cocked an eyebrow "Why four?"

"Well, you have five fingers on each hand, and I have three, so split the difference and you get four."

Alice rolled her eyes "I don't think genetics works like that."

"Says the woman currently giving birth to a genetically impossible baby." Garrus teased.

Suddenly, Alice's expression grew serious "Garrus… what if it doesn't-"

"It will."

"But-"

"It _will_." Garrus pressed his forehead against hers "I swear it."

"Alright, I think we're ready." Ashley said.

"You _think_?" John asked incredulously, disinfecting one of Vega's wounds.

"You wanna' do this without a ruler?!" Ashley snapped back. "EDI?"

"Garrus, move me so I can see." Garrus reluctantly left Alice's side for a moment to move EDI to a spot where she could determine whether or not Alice had dilated enough. "Yes, it appears we are ready to proceed."

Ashley nodded "Alright, Alice, when I tell you to, _PUSH_!"

Garrus quickly returned to Alice's side and let her crush his hand in hers when she began to push, releasing a mighty cry. Every second that passed seemed like an eternity, all Alice was aware of was Ashley's commands to push, the sea of pain, and Garrus' encouraging words.

Finally, something slipped free, and Alice heard a strange, warbling crying that instantly buried itself in her heart. "Congratulations," Ashley said happily "It's a boy! …I think. Turians have the same genitalia as humans right?"

"Yes Ashley" EDI said flatly.

"Just checking,"

Alice smiled, the pain finally subsiding, she turned to see Garrus looking at the baby in shock. "Garrus?"

"That's… a lot of blood…" was his only response.

_THUNK!_

Alice looked up and laughed upon seeing that, it was not Garrus who'd fainted, but Grunt.

…

They were picked up by the Normandy a few minutes later. Chakwas immediately wheeled Alice and the baby to the med-bay, intending to perform a full checkup on the newborn after administering to Tali, Vega, and Grunt's wounds. Eventually, after a long several minutes, Chakwas announced much to everyone's relief that the baby was- miraculously, and despite all logic saying that it shouldn't be possible- healthy, although she did say that she would have to monitor the child for the next few months to make sure nothing was wrong.

Once she had completed her examination, Chakwas left the med-bay to give Alice and Garrus some privacy. She searched the crowd gathered in the mess until she finally found the person she was looking for. "Commander," she said, getting John to look away from the scene in the med-bay. "How are you feeling?"

"Physically?" John shrugged, he still hadn't taken off his father's armor, not even the helmet "Fine, but… I can't help thinking about…"

"Your father," Chakwas finished.

John nodded "If I hadn't insisted on going, he would have had the extra protection of his armor. He might still be…"

"He made his choice," Chakwas said "And you made yours, I'm sure that given the chance he would make again in a heartbeat."

John nodded "Yeah…" he sighed "Was there something you wanted Doc?"

Chakwas nodded "Actually, yes. Could we speak privately?"

John nodded and led Chakwas towards the main battery "What did you want to talk about?" he asked once they were alone.

Chakwas activated her omni-tool, a double helix appearing above it "This is a strand of the baby's DNA."

John crossed his arms over his chest "And?"

Chakwas sighed and pressed another button on her omni-tool, a second double helix popped up next to the first one "I believe you are already familiar with this one."

John's eyes widened beneath his helmet "Is that…?"

"Yes."

"What does this mean?"

Chakwas hesitated before replying "I don't know."

…

Garrus smiled down at the little bundle in Alice's arms. "He's beautiful." Alice said, sounding happier than Garrus had ever heard her.

Garrus nodded "Yeah…" he paused "He gets it from me."

Alice rolled her eyes but didn't object. The baby hybrid's head was almost completely turian, though his lips were a little different, not quite turian, not quite human. Like a turian baby, his fringe had barely grown in. His tiny little mandibles rested against cheeks, not covering an open jaw like a turian. His plates- and he did have plates, although they appeared to be less hard than a typical turian's- were the color of Alice's skin with a slight grayish tint. Hidden beneath the blanket, his cowl was much smaller than a normal turian's, and he possessed five fingers on each hand –not four, like Garrus had predicted. The front of his chest was more human shaped than turian, and his arms and legs were slightly bulkier that a turian's, though he possessed turian feet and spurs. Overall, because he had fat, the baby was bulkier than a turian, but still more lithe than a human. Whether or not it would stay that way when he got older was anybody's guess. Chakwas had said that his blood was red, most likely from growing in a human womb, and that he somehow possessed both dextro and levo amino acids. Garrus still didn't know how that was possible, but at the moment he didn't care.

Garrus stroked his son's head, causing the baby to open his eyes and reveal the brilliant blue irises that Alice had complained she couldn't tell which of the two blue-eyed parents they resembled more.

"What should we name him?" Garrus asked.

Alice didn't even need to consider it "Carn."

…

The stars inside the black dome cast long shadows across the room's sole occupant, an asari woman in a pale blue gown sitting behind an elegant desk, silhouetted by a spinning spiral galaxy behind her. She appeared to be waiting for somebody.

The floor to her right rippled like liquid and a figure emerged from it, taking the shape of a human man "What is taking him so long?" he turned to the asari "You better not be playing games with me Vilvia."

The asari glanced at her partner "I have welcomed you into my home with open arms. We have a mutually beneficial arrangement. I would gain nothing by betraying you."

Before the man could respond, a door at the far end of the dome slid open and a salarian scuttled through, holding the fragments of a small cube in his hand. "Apologize for the delay," The salarian said "Ship is large, easy to get lost in."

The man nodded, not really listening, his attention solely on the fragments. "That's it?" he asked.

The salarian nodded and handed them to the man, "Damaged, but you should be able to recover some data from it."

The man nodded and turned back to Vilvia "Well then, seeing as you've upheld you're end of the bargain, I suppose I should tell you that your plan was successful. Shepard managed to rescue Alice and the baby."

The asari smiled "Good."

"Although," the man continued "I still wonder why you would want to let them get away."

Vilvia stood up "And I wonder why you want these relics. It seems we will both have to keep wondering about one another's motives."

The man smiled, it wasn't a warm or friendly smile, it was cold, harsh, and malevolent, it was the kind of smile that lacked a soul, the kind of smile that only the devil would use. "So it seems."

…

Somewhere, deep underground, in undiscovered ancient ruins, a consciousness stirred, its first thought echoing through space…

_It has begun._

**A/N: Okay, I kinda lied. Explanations ARE coming, they'll just be revealed in the sequel, which I am now proud to announce will be titled "Hybrid" (yeah, real creative, I know, but there's more than just one reason for it). If you are absolutely DYING to have any questions answered and can't wait for it to be revealed in "Hybrid" then let me know in a Review and I'll PM you. Be warned though, chances are these questions are going to be major plot points in "Hybrid" and you will be spoiling it for yourself. **

**(Interesting side note about baby!Carn's name, I actually named him BEFORE I named Carn Shepard, so once again, this was something planned from the beginning.) **


End file.
